A DISCOURSE OF TRUTH.

TRUTH is of aequivocal sig­nification, and therefore can­not be defined before it be distinguish't. It is two fold; Truth in things, which you may call Truth in the Object: and Truth in the Vnderstanding, which is Truth in the Subject. By the first I mean nothing else but that Things ne­cessarily are what they are: By the se­cond that there are mutual respects and relations of Things one unto an­other. [Page 2] Now that Things are what they are, and that there are mutual Respects and Relations Eternal, and Immutable, and in order of Nature antecedent to any Understanding either created or uncreated, is a thing very plain and evident; for it's clear­er than the Meridian Light, that such Propositions as these, Homo est animal rationale, Triangulum est quod habet tres angulos, are not arbitrarious de­pendancies upon the Will, Decree, or Understanding of God, but are Necessary and Eternal Truths; and wherein 'tis as impossible to divide the Subject, and what is spoken of it, as it is for a thing not to be what it is, which is no less than a Contra­diction; and as indispensible are the mutual respects and relations of things both in Speculatives and Morals.

For can it be imagin'd that every. Argument can be made a propor­tioned Medium to prove every Con­clusion, that Any thing may be a suitable means to Any end? that any [Page 3] object may be conformable to any Faculty? Can Omnipotence it self make these Propositions that twice two are four, or that Parallels can­not intersect, clear and convincing Arguments to prove these grand Truths, That Christ came into the World to dye for Sinners, and is now exalted as a Prince and a Saviour at the Right Hand of God? Is it possible that there should be such a kind of Geometry, wherein any problems should be demonstrated by any Principles; quidlibet ex quodlibet; as that a Quadrangle is that which is compre­hended of four right Lines: There­fore the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two right ones?

Can the infinite Wisdom it self make the damning of all the Innocent & the unspotted Angels in Heaven a proportionate means to declare and manifest the unmeasureableness of his Grace and Love, and goodness to­wards them? Can Lying, Swearing, Envy, Malice, nay hatred of God [Page 4] and goodness it self, be made the most acceptable Service of God, and the readiest way to a mans Happiness? And yet all these must be true, and infinitely more such contradictions than we can possibly imagine, if the mutual respects and relations of things be not Eternal and Indispenfi­ble: which that they are, I shall en­deavour to prove; and in order to it

First, we must premise that Divine Vnderstanding cannot be the Fountain of the Truth of things; nor the Foun­dation of the references of one to ano­ther. For it is against the Nature of all Understanding, to make its Ob­jects; it is the nature of Understand­ing, ut moveatur, illuminetur, forme­tur: &c. Of its Object, ut moveat, il­luminet, formet: Intellectus in actu primo hath its self unto its object, as the Eye unto the Sun; it is irradia­ted, inlightned and actuated by it: And Intellectus in actu secundo, hath its self unto its objects, as the Image to that it represents; and the perfe­ction [Page 5] of Understanding consists in be­ing actuated by, and in an adaequate Conformity to its object, accor­ding to the nature of all Idea's, Ima­ges or Representations of things. The Sum is this, No Idea's or Re­presentations are the things they re­present; all Understanding is such; therefore no Understanding doth make the Natures, Respects and Re­lations of its Objects.

It remains then, that absolute, ar­bitrarious and independent Will must be the Fountain of all Truth; and must determine the References and Dependencies of things: which asser­tion would in the First place destroy the Nature of God, and rob him of all his Attributes. For then it's impossible that there should be such a thing as Divine Wisdom and Know­ledge, which is nothing else but an apprehension of common notions, and the natures and mutual respects and relations of things. For if the Nature of God be such, that his [Page 6] arbitrarious imagination that such and such things have such and such natures and Dependencies, doth make those things to have those Natures or De­pendencies, he may as easily Unima­gine that Imagination; and then they that before had a mutual Harmony, Sympathy and Agreement with one another, shall now stand at as great a distance and opposition. And thus the Divine Understanding will be a mere Protaean Chymaera, a Ca­sual Conflux of intellectual Atomes: Contradictions are true, if God un­derstands them so, and then the foundation of all Knowledge is taken away, and God may as truly be said to know nothing as every thing; nay, any Angel or Man may as truly be said to know all things, as God himself; for then every thing will be alike certain, and every ap­prehension equally conformable to Truth. These are infallible conse­quences, and a thousand more as ab­surd as these, if contradictory Propo­sitions [Page 7] may be both true: and whe­ther they be so or no, it's a meer ca­sual Dependance upon the Arbitrari­ous pleasure of God, if there be not a necessary immutability and eternal opposition betwixt the being and the not being of the same thing, at the same time and in the same respect. Likewise all those Truths we call Common Notions, (the Systeme and Comprehensions of which, is the very Essence of Divine Wisdom; as the conclusions issuing from them, not by any operose deduction, but a clear intuitive light, are the very Nature of Divine Knowledge, if we distinguish those two Attributes in God) I say, all these propositions of immediate and indemonstrable Truth, if these be only so, because so understood by God, and so un­derstood by God because he pleased so to have them, and not because there is an indispensible relation of Harmony and Proportion betwixt the Terms themselves; then it is a [Page 8] thing meerly casual, and at the plea­sure of God to change his former apprehensions, and Idea's of those Truths, & to make their contradicto­ries as Evident, Radical and Funda­mental as themselves but even now were; and so Divine Wisdom and Knowledge will be a various, fickle and mutable thing, a meer tumult & confusion: all these consequences infal­libly flow from this certain Principle, that upon a changeable and uncer­tain Cause, Effects must needs have a changeable and uncertain Depen­dance. And there is nothing ima­ginable in it self more changeable and uncertain than Will not re­gulated by the dictates of Reason and Understanding.

If any deny these Consequences and Deductions, because they sup­pose that God is mutable and change­able; I answer, by bringing this as another absurdity, that if there be no indispensable and eternal respects of things, it will rob God of his [Page 9] Immutability, and unchangeableness: for if there be no necessary depen­dence betwixt Vnchangeableness and Perfection, what should hinder, but that if God please to think it so, it will be his perfection to be change­able; and if Will, as such, be the only principle of his Actions, it is infallibly his Perfection to be so. For 'tis the perfection of every Be­ing to act according to the princi­ple of its Nature, and it is the na­ture of an arbitrarious Principle to act or not, to do or undo upon no account but its own will and plea­sure; to be determined, and tied up, either by it self, or from abroad, is violent and contranatural.

And therefore from this Principle, that absolute and soveraign Will is the Spring and Fountain of all Gods Actions, It was rightly inferr'd by a late Pamphliteer, that God will one day damn all Mankind, Good and Bad, Believers and Unbelievers, not­withstanding all his Promises, Pre­tensions [Page 10] or Engagements to the con­trary; because this damning all man­kind in despight of his Faithfulness, Justice, Mercy and Goodness will be the greatest advancement of his Soveraignty, Will and Prerogative imaginable. His words are, God hath stored up Destruction both for the Perfect and the Wicked, and this does wonderfully set forth his Soveraignty; his exercising whereof is so perfect, that when he hath tied himself up fast as may be, by never so many promises, yet it should still have its scope, and be able to do what it will, when it will, as it will: here you have this principle improved to the height. And however you may look upon this Author as some new Light, or Ignis fatuus of the times, yet I as­sure you in some pieces by him set forth, he is very sober and rati­onal.

In the next place, to deny the mutual respects and rationes rerum to be immutable and indispensible, [Page 11] will spoil God of that universal recti­tude which is the greatest Perfecti­on of his Nature: for then Justice, Faithfulness, Mercy, Godness &c. will be but contingent and arbitrari­ous Issues of the Divine Will. This is a clear and undeniable Conse­quence, for if you say these be indis­pensible perfections in God, for in­stance, if Justice be so, then there is an eternal relation of Right and Equity betwixt every Being and the giving of it, that which is its propriety; if Faithfulness, then there is an indispensible agreement be­twixt a promise, and the perform­ance of it; if Mercy, then there is an immutable and unalterable suitableness and harmony between an indigent Creature, and pity and commiseration; if Goodness, then there is an everlasting Proportion and Symmetry between fulness and its overflowing and dispreading of it self, which is the thing denyed: for to say they are indispensibly so, because God understands them so, [Page 12] seems to me extream incogitancy; for that is against the nature of all understanding, which is but the I­dea and Representation of things, and is then a true and perfect Image, when it is exactly conformed to its object: and therefore, if things have not mutual respects and Re­lations eternal and indispensible, then all those perfections do solely and purely depend upon absolute and independent Will, as Will; And consequently, it was and is indifferent in it self that the con­trary to these, as, Injustice, Vnfaith­fulness, Cruelty, Malice, Hatred, Spite, Revenge, Fury; and whatever goes to the constitution of Hell it self should have been made the top and highest perfections of the divine Na­ture: which is such Blasphemy as cannot well be named without hor­ror and trembling, for instead of being a God, such a nature as this is, joyned with omnipotency would be a worse Devil than any is in Hell. And yet this is a necessary [Page 13] and infallible consequence from the denial of these mutual respects and relations of things unto one another, to be eternal and unchangeable. And as by the denial of these, the Na­ture of God is wholly destroyed, so in the second place, the mind of Man would have no certainty of Knowledge, or assurance of Happi­ness. He can never come to Know there is a God, and consequently not the Will and Mind of God, which if there be no intrinsecal and indispensible respects and relations of things, must be the ground and foun­dation of all Knowledge: for what means or arguments should we use to find out, or prove a Divine Nature? It were folly and madness to sit down and consider the admirable contrive­ment and artifice of this great Fa­brick of the Universe; how that all natural things seem to act for some end, though themselves take no Cognizance of it: How the Sun by its motion and situation, or (which is all one) by being a Cen­tre, [Page 14] of the Earths Motion, provides Light and Heat, and Life for this inferiour World, how living Crea­tures bring forth a most apt com­posure and structure of parts and members, and with that a being endued with admirable Faculties, and yet themselves have no insight into, nor consultation about this in­comparable Workmanship; how they are furnished with Powers and Incli­nations for the preservation of this Body when it is once brought into the World; how without praevious deliberation they naturally take in that Food which without their in­tention or animadversion is concoct­ed in their Ventricle, turned into Chyle, that Chyle into Blood, that Blood diffused through the Veins and Arteries, and therewith the se­veral Members nourished, and de­cayes of strength repaired; I say, the gathering from all these (which one would think were a very natu­ral Consequence) that there is a wise Principle which directs all these Be­ings [Page 15] unknown to you, in their several motions, to their several ends, (suppo­sing the dependance and relations of things to be contingent and arbitrari­ous) were a piece of folly and incogi­tancy; for how can the Order of those things speak a wise and understanding Being, which have no relation or re­spect unto one another, but their whole agreement, suitableness and proportion is a meer casual Issue of absolute and independent Will? If any thing may be the cause of any effect, and a proportionate mean to any end, who can infer infinite Wisdom from the dependence of things and their relations unto one an­other? for we are to know that there is a God, and the Will of that God before we can know the mutual Harmony, or Disproportion of things; and yet, if we do not know these prin­cipal respects that things have among themselves, it is impossible we should ever come to the knowledge of a God: for these are the only arguments that any Logick in the World can make [Page 16] use of to prove any conclusion: But suppose we should come to know that there is a God, which, as I have demonstrated, denying the necessary and immutable truth of common Notions, and the indis­pensible and eternal relations of things is altogether impossible. How­ever, let it be supposed; yet how shall we know that these common No­tions, and principles of natural in­stinct, which are the foundation of all Discourse and Argumentation, are certain and infallible Truths; and that our Senses, (which with these former Principles, we suppose this Divine Nature to have given us to converse with this outward world) were not on purpose be­stowed upon us, to befool, delude and cheat us; if we be not first as­sured of the Veracity of God? and how can we be assured of that, if we know not that Veracity is a per­fection; and how shall we know it is so, unless there be an intrinse­cal relation betwixt Veracity and [Page 17] perfection? for if it be an arbitrari­ous respect depending upon the Will of God, there is no way possible left whereby we should come to know that it is in God at all; And therefore we have fully as much rea­son to believe that all our common Notions and Principles of natural instinct, whereupon we ground all our reasonings and discourse, are meer Chymera's to delude and abuse our faculties; and all those Idea's Phantasms and Apprehensions of our external senses, we imagine are oc­casioned in us by the presence of outward objects, are meer Spect­rums and Gulleries, wherewith poor mortals are befooled and cheated; as that they are given us by the first Goodness & Truth to lead us into the Knowledge of himself and Nature.

This is a clear and evident conse­quence, and cannot be denyed by any that doth not complain of darkness in the brightest and most Meridian Light. And here you have the foun­dations laid of the highest Scepti­cism; [Page 18] for who can say he knows any thing, when he hath no bassion which he can raise any true conclusions?

Thus you see the noble faculties of man, his Mind and Understanding, will be to no end and purpose, but for a Rack and Torture; for what greater unhappiness or torment can there be imagined, than to have Fa­culties, whose Accomplishment and Perfection consists in a due confor­mation unto their objects, and yet to have no objects unto which they may be conformed; To have a Soul unmeasurably breathing after the em­braces of Truth and Goodness, and after a search and enquiry after one and the other, and to find at last they are but aiery empty and uncer­tain Notions, depending upon the arbitratious determinations of bound­less and independent Will; which determinations she sees it beyond her reach ever to come to any know­ledge of?

Here you have likewise the true Foundations of that we call Ran­tism, [Page 19] for if there be no distinction 'twixt Truth and Falshood, Good and Evil, in the nature of the things themselves, and we never can be as­sured what is the mind and pleasure of the supream and absolute Will (because Veracity is not intrinsecal­ly and ex natura rei, a Perfection, but only an Arbitrarious, if any At­tribute in the Deity) then it infalli­bly follows, that it is all one what I do, or how I live; and I have as much reason to believe that I am as pleasing unto God, when I give up my self unto all Filthiness, Uncleanness and Sin; when I swell with Pride, Envy, Hatred and Ma­lice &c. as when I endeavour with all my Might and Strength to purge and purifie my Soul from all pollu­tion and defilement both of Flesh and Spirit; and when I pursue the mortification of all my carnal Lusts and Inclinations: And I have fully as much ground and assurance, that the one is the ready Way to Happi­ness as the other.

[Page 20] And this is another branch of this second Absurdity, from the deni­all of the intrinsecal and eternal respects and relations of things, that a man would not have any assurance of future Happiness; for though it be true indeed, or at least we fancy to our selves that God hath sent Jesus Christ into the world, & by him hath made very large and ample promises, that whosoever believes in him and conforms his life unto his Precepts, shall be made heir of the same Inhe­ritance and Glory which Christ is now possessed of and invested with in the Kingdom of his Father, yet what ground have we to believe that God does not intend onely to play with and abuse our Faculties, and in conclusion to damn all those that believe and live as is above expres­sed; and to take them only into the Injoyments of Heaven and Happiness, who have been the great Opposers of the Truth, and Gospel, and Life and Nature of Jesus Christ in the world: for if there be no eternal and [Page 21] indispensible Relation of Things, then there's no intrinsecal Evil in Deceiving and Falsifying, in the damning the Good, or saving obsti­nate and contumacious Sinners (whilst such) notwithstanding any promi­ses or threatnings to the contrary: and if the things be in themselves indifferent, it is an unadvised Con­fidence to pronounce determinately on either side. Yea further, suppose we should be assured that God is Ve­rax, and that the Scripture doth de­clare what is his Mind and Pleasure, yet if there be not an intrinsecal op­position betwixt the Being and not being of a thing at the same time, and in the same respect; then God can make a thing that hath been done, un­done; and that whatever hath been done or spoken either by himself, or Christ, or his Prophets, or Apostles, should never be done, or spoken by him on them; though He hath come into the world; yet that He should not be come; though he hath made these promises, yet that they should not be [Page 22] made; though God hath given us Fa­culties, that are capable of the enjoy­ment of himself, yet that he should not have given them us; and yet we should have no Being, nor think a thought while we fancy and speak of all these contradictions; In fine, it were im­possible we should know any thing, if the opposition of contradictory terms depend upon the arbitrarious resolves of any Being whatsoever. If any should affirm, that the terms of Common Notions have an eternal and indispensible relation unto one another, and deny it of other truths, he exceedingly betrayes his folly and incogitancy; for these common No­tions and principles are foundations, and radical truths upon which are built all the deductions of reason and Discourse, and with which, so far as they have any truth in them, they are inseparably united. All these conse­quences are plain and undeniable, and therefore I shall travel no further in the confirmation of them.

Against this Discourse will be object­ed, [Page 23] that it destroys God's Independency and Self-sufficiency; for if there be truth antecedently to the Divine Un­derstanding; the Divine Understand­ing will be a meer passive principle, acted and inlightned by something without it self, as the Eyes, by the Sun, and lesser objects, which the Sun ir­radiates: And if there be mutual con­gruities, and dependencies of things in a moral sense, and so, that such and such means have a natural, and intrin­secal tendency, or repugnance to such and such ends, then will God be de­termined in his actions from some­thing without himself, which is to take away his independency, and Self­sufficiency. The pardoning of Sin to repenting Sinners seems to be a thing very suitable to infinite Goodness and Mercy, if there be any suitableness, or agreement in things antecedently to Gods Will; therefore in this case will God be moved from abroad and as it were Determined to an act of Grace. This will also undermine and shake many principles and opinions [Page 24] which are look'd upon as Fundamen­tals, and necessary to be believed: It will unlink and break that chain and method of Gods Decrees, which is ge­nerally believed amongst us. God's great plot, and design from all eterni­ty, as it is usually held forth, was to advance his Mercy and Justice in the Salvation of some, and Damnation of others; We shall only speak of that part of Gods design, the advancement of his Justice in the Damnation of the greatest part of mankind, as being most pertinent for the improving of the strength of the objection against our former Discourse: That I may do this, He decrees to create man, and be­ing created, decrees that man should sin, and because, as some say, man is a meer passive principle, not able, no not in the presence of objects, to re­duce himself into action, Or because in the moment of his creation, as o­thers, he was impowered with an in­differency to stand or fall; Therefore, lest there should be a frustration of God's great design; he decrees in the [Page 25] next place, infallibly to determine the Will of man unto Sin, that having sin­ned he might accomplish his Damna­tion; and what he had first, & from all eternity in his intentions, the advance­ment of his Justice. Now if there be such an intrinsecal relation of things, as our former Discourse pretends un­to, this design of God will be wholly frustrated. For it may seem clear to every mans understanding that it is not for the Honour and Advancement of Justice to determine the will of man to sin, and then to punish him for that Sin unto which he was so determi­ned; Whereas if God's Will, as such, be the only Rule & principle of actions, this will be an accommodate means (if God so please to have it) unto his design. The Sum is, We have seem­ed in our former discourse to bind and tye up God, who is an absolute and in­dependent Being, to the petty forma­lities of Good and Evil; & to fetter and imprison freedom, and liberty it self, in the fatal and immutable chains, and respects of things.

[Page 26] I answer. This objection concerns partly the understanding of God, and partly his Will; As for the di­vine understanding, the Case is thus; There are certain Beings, or natures of things which are Logically possible; it implyes no contradiction that they should be, although it were supposed, there were no power that could bring them into being; which na­tures, or things, supposing they were in being, would have mutual re­lations of agreement or opposition unto one another, which would be no more distinguished from the things themselves, than Relations are from that which founds them. Now the Divine Understanding is a represen­tation, or Comprehension of all those natures or beings thus logically, and in respect of God absolutely possible, and consequently it must needs be also a comprehension of all these Sympa­thies, and Antipathies, either in a natural or a moral Way, which they have one unto another: for they, as I said, do necessarily, and immediate­ly [Page 27] flow from the things themselves, as relations do, posito fundamento & termino. Now the Divine understand­ing doth not at all depend upon these natures, or relations though they be its objects; for the nature of an object doth not consist in being motivum facultatis, as it is usually with us, whose apprehensions are a­wakened by their presence; but its whole nature is sufficiently compre­hended in this, that it is terminati­vum Facultatis; and this precisely doth not speak any dependency of the faculty upon it, especially in the divine understanding; where this ob­jective, terminative presence flows from the faecundity of the Divine nature: for the things themselves are so far from having any being antecedently to the Divine understanding; that had not it been their exemplary pattern, and Idea, they had never been created, and being created they would lye in darkness; (I speak of things that have not in them a principle of under­standing, not conscious of their own [Page 26] [...] [Page 27] [...] [Page 28] natures, and that beauteous harmony they have among themselves) were they not irradiated by the Divine un­derstanding, which is as it were an universal Sun that discovers and dis­playes the natures and respects of things, and does as it were suck them up into its beames.

To the second part of the Objection, the strength whereof is, that to tye up God in his actions to the reason of things, destroys his Liberty, Abso­luteness, and Independency. I an­swer, it is no imperfection for God to be determined to Good; It is no bondage, slavery, or contraction, to be bound up to the eternal Laws of Right and Justice: it is the greatest impotency and weakness in the world to have a power to evil, and there is nothing so diametrically opposite to the very being and nature of God; Stat pro ratione voluntas, unless it be as a redargution and check to impudent and daring inquirers, is an account no where justifiable. The more any Being partakes of reason and under­standing, [Page 29] the worse is the imputation of acting arbitrariously, & pro impe­rio. We can pardon it in Women and children, as those from whom we do not expect that they should act upon any higher principle, but for a man of reason and understanding, that hath the Laws of goodness and rectitude (which are as the Laws of the Medes and Persians that cannot be altered) engraven upon his mind, for Him to cast off these golden reins, and to set up arbitrarious Will for his Rule and Guide, is a piece of in­tolerable rashness and presumption. This is an infallible rule, that liberty in the power or principle is no where a perfection, where there is not an indifferency in the things or actions about which it is conversant: And therefore it is a piece of our weakness and imbecillity, that we have natures so indetermined to what is good. These things need no proof, indeed cannot well be proved, otherwise than they prove themselves: for they are of immediate truth, and prove [Page 30] themselves, they will, to a pure un­prejudiced mind.

2. Our former Discourse doth not infer any dependency of God, upon any thing without himself; for God is not excited to his actions by any foreign, or extrinsecal motives; what He does, proceeds from the eternal immutable respects, and relations, or reasons of things, and where are these to be found, but in the Eternal and divine Wisdom; for what can infinite Wisdom be, but a steady, and immoveable comprehension of all those natures and relations: and therefore God in his actions, does not look abroad, but only consults, (if I may so speak) the Idea's of his own mind. What Creatures doe, is but the offering a particular case, for the reducement of a general prin­ciple into a particular action; or the presentment of an occasion for God to act according to the principles of his own nature; when we say that God pardoneth Sin upon repentance, God is not moved to an act of grace [Page 31] from any thing without himself; for this is a principle in the Divine Wis­dom, that pardon of Sin to repen­ting sinners, is a thing very suitable to infinite goodness, and this principle is a piece of the Divine nature: there­fore when God upon a particular act of repentance puts forth a particular act of grace, It is but as it were a par­ticular instance to the general rule, which is a portion of Divine perfe­ction, when 'tis said, to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abun­dance, the meaning is, He that walks up unto that light, and improves that strength, that God hath already com­municated unto him, shall have more abundant incomes of light and strength from God: It doth not follow that God is moved from without to impart his Grace. For this is a branch of Divine Wisdom; it is agreeable to the infinite good­ness of God, to take notice of, and reward the sincere, though weak en­deavours of his Creatures, after him; so that what is from abroad is but a [Page 32] particular occasion to those divine principles to exert, and put forth themselves.

Thus have we spoken concerning the truth of things. It follows that we speak

Concerning Truth in the power, or faculty, which we shall dispatch in a few words.

Truth in the power, or faculty is nothing else but a conformity of its conceptions or Idea's unto the natures and relations of things, which in God we may call an actual, steady, im­moveable, eternal Omniformity, as Plotinus calls the Divine Intellect, [...], which you have largely de­scribed by him. And this the Plato­nists truly call the intellectual world, for here are the natures of all things pure, and unmix'd, purged from all those dregs, refined from all that Dross and alloy which cleave un­to them in their particular instances. All inferiour and sublunary things, not excluding man himself, have their excrescencies, and Defects, Exor­bitances, [Page 33] or privations are moulded up in their very frames and constituti­ons. There is somewhat extraneous heterogeneous and preternatural in all things here below, as they exist a­mongst us; but in that other world, like the most purely fined gold, they shine in their native and proper glory. Here is the first goodness, the benigne Parent of the whole creation, with his numerous off-spring: the infinite throng of created Beings: Here is the fountain of eternal Love, with all its streams, and Rivulets: Here is the Sum of uncreated glory, surrounded with all his rayes, and beams: Here are the eternal, and indispensible Laws of right and Justice, the im­mediate and indemonstrable princi­ples of truth, and goodness: Here are steady and immoveable rules, for all cases and actions, however circum­stantiated, from which the Will of God, though never so absolute, and independent from everlasting to ever­lasting, shall never depart one Tittle. Now all that truth that is in any [Page 34] [...] [Page 34] created Being, is by participation and derivation from this first under­standing, and fountain of intellectual light. And that truth in the power or faculty is nothing but the confor­mity of its conceptions, or Ideas with the natures and relations of things, is cleare and evident in it self, and necessarily follows from what hath been formerly proved concerning the truth of things themselves, antece­dently to any understanding, or will; for things are what they are, and cannot be otherwise without a con­tradiction, and their mutual respects and dependencies eternal and un­changeable, as hath been already shew'd: so that the conceptions and Ideas of these natures and their rela­tions, can be only so far true as they conform and agree with the things themselves, and the harmony which they have one to another.

The Way OF HAPPINESS AND SALVATION.

WHEN I consider the good­ness of God; and the me­rits of his Son, our Savi­our; and the Influences of the Holy Spirt; and all the advantages of the Gospel; The certainty of its Princi­ples, the reasonableness of its duties, the greatness of its ends, the suitableness of its means, the glory of its Rewards, [Page 2] and the Terrour of its punishments; I say, when I consider these, and then look upon Man as a reasonable Crea­ture, apprehensive of Duty, and inte­rest, and apt to be moved by hopes and fears; I cannot but wonder, and be astonisht to think, that notwith­standing all this, the far greater part of men should finally miscarry, and be undone. 'Tis possible some such Con­siderations might be the occasion of the Question propounded to our Saviour in the verse immediately foregoing the Text. —Lord, are there Few that be saved? God is Love, and all the Crea­tures are His, and man a noble sort: He is the Lover of Men, and Thou art Redeemer of Men; and though Man hath offended, yet God is propense to pardon, and in Thee he is reconciled; He is desirous of our happiness, and Thou art come into the world to offer, and promote it; and the Holy Ghost is powerful and ready to assist our endeavours; We were made for happiness, and we seek it; And— [Page 3] Lord, are there Few that be saved? The Text is Christ's return to the Questi­on, Strive to enter in at the straight Gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter, and shall not be able. In which words we have three things.

(I) An Answer imply'd; straight is the Gate.

(II) A duty exprest, strive to enter.

(III) A Consideration to engage our greater care and deligence in the Duty; For many will seek to enter, and shall not be able.

By the Gate, we may understand the entrance, and all the way of Hap­piness, and that is, Religion; By the straightness of it; the Difficulties we are to encounter. By striving; earnest and sincere endeavour: By seeking; an imperfect striving. And from the words thus briefly explain'd, These Proposi­tions offer themselves to onr Consi­deration.

[Page 4] I. There are many and great diffi­culties in Religion, The Gate is straight.

II. The difficulties may be over­come by striving, Strive to enter.

III. There is a sort of striving that will not procure an entrance, For many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

I begin with the First in order, viz. That there are many and great difficulties in Religion; And to what I have to say about it, I premise this negative Consideration. That,

The Difficulties of Religion do not lye in the Vnderstanding. Religion is a plain thing, and easie to be understood. 'Tis no deep subtilty, or high-strain'd notion; 'tis no gilded phancy, or ela­borate exercise of the brain; 'Tis not plac'd in the clouds of Imagination, nor wrapt up in mystical cloathing; But 'tis obvious and familiar, easie and intelligible; First preach't by Fisher­men and Mechanicks, without pomp of speech, or height of speculation; [Page 5] addreft to Babes and Plebeian heads; and intended to govern the wills of the honest, and sincere; and not to ex­ercise the wits of the notional, and cu­rious. So that we need not mount the wings of the wind to fetch Religi­on from the stars; nor go down to the deep to fetch it up from thence; For 'tis with us, and before us, as open as the day, and as familiar as the light. The great Praecepts of the Gospel are cloathed in Sun-beams, and are as vi­sible to the common eye, as to the Ea­gle upon the highest perch. 'Tis no piece of wit or subtilty to be a Chri­stian, nor will it require much study, or learned retirement to understand the Religion we must practise. That which was to be known of God, was manifest to the very Heathen, Rom. 1. 19. The Law is light, saith Solomon, Prov. 6. 13. And 'tis not only a single passing glance on the eye; but 'tis put into the heart, and the promise is, that we shall all know him, from the greatest to the least. Our duty is set up [Page 6] in open places, and shone upon by a clear Beam; 'Twas written of old upon the plain Tables of Habakkuk, Hab. 2. 2. So that the running Eye might see and read: And the Religi­on of the H. Jesus, like himself, came into the world with Rays about its Head.

Religion, I say, is clear, and plain, and what is not so, may concern the Theatre, or the Schools; may enter­tain mens Wits, and serve the Inte­rests of Disputes; but 'tis nothing to Religion, 'tis nothing to the Interest of mens Souls.

Religion was once a Mystery, but the Mystery is revealed; And those things that we yet count Mysteries, are plainly enough discover'd as to their being such as we believe them, though we cannot understand the manner how; and 'tis no part of Re­ligion to enquire into that, but rather It injoyns us meekly to acquiesce in the plain declarations of Faith with­out bold scrutiny into hidden things. [Page 7] In short I say, the difficulties of Re­ligion are not in the Vnderstanding; In prompto & Facili est aeternitas, said the Father; The affairs of eternity de­pend on things Easy and Familiar. And I premise this to prevent dange­rous mistakes.

But thoug Religion be so facile and plain a thing to be understood, yet the way to Heaven is no broad, or ea­sie Path; The Gate is straight enough for all that; and I now come to shew what are the real difficulties of Religion, and whence they arise.

1. One great Difficulty ariseth from the depravity of our Natures. The Scripture intimates, That we are conceived in sin, Psalm 55. 5. Trans­gressours from the Womb. Isaiah 48. 8. And Children of Wrath. Ephes. 2. 3. And we find by Experience that we bring vile Inclinations into the Wold with us. Some are naturally Cruel and Injurious; Proud and Imperious; Lustful and Revengful; [Page 8] Others, Covetous and Unjust; Hu­moursome and Discontented; Trea­cherous and False: And there is scarce an instance of habitual vice, or villany, but some or other are addict­ed to it by their partieular Make and Natures: I say, their Natures, for certainly it is not true what some af­firm, to serve their Opinions, in con­tradiction to Experience; That Vi­ces are not in Mens natural Propensions; but instill'd by corrupt Education, evil Customs and Examples: For we see that those whose Education hath been the same, do yet differ extreamly from each other in their inclinations; And some, whose Breeding hath been careless and loose, who have seen almost nothing else but Examples of Vice; and been instructed in little, besides the arts of Vanity and Pleasure; I say, there are such who notwith­standing these their unhappy circum­stances, discover none of those vile Inclinations, and Propensions, that are in others, whose Education hath [Page 9] been very strict and advantageous. This I think is enough to shew that many of our evil habits are from Nature, and not from Custom only.

And yet I cannot say that Humane Nature is so debaucht, that every Man is inclin'd to every Evil by it: For there are those, who by their Tempers are averse to some kind of Vices, and naturally disposed to the contrary Vertues; some by their Constitutions are inclined to hate Cruelty, Co­vetousness, Lying, Impudence and Injustice, and are by Temper, Mer­ciful, Liberal, Modest, True and Just. There are kinds of Vices which our Natures almost universally rise a­gaisnt, as many Bestialities, and some horrid Cruelties; and all men, ex­cept Monsters in Humane form, are disposed to some Vertues, such as Love to Children, and Kindness to Friends and Benefactors. All this P must confess and say, because Expe­rien̄ce constrains me; and I do not know why Systematick Notions should [Page 10] sway more than that.

But notwithstanding these last concessions, 'tis evident enough that our Natures are much vitiated, and depraved; and this makes our busi­ness in the way of Religion, diffi­cult. For our work is, to cleanse our Natures; and to destroy those E­vil Inclinations; to crucifie the Old Man; Rom. 6. 6. and to purge out the old Leven; 1 Cor. 5. 7. This is Religion, and the Way of Happi­ness, which must needs be very diffi­cult, and uneasie. For the vices of In­clination are very dear, and grateful to us; They are our Right Hands, and our Right Eyes, and esteemed as our Selves: So that to cut off, and pluck out these, and to bid defiance to, and wage War against our selves; to destroy the first born of our Natures, and to lop off our own Limbs; This cannot but be very Irksom and Dis­pleasant Imployment, and this is one chief business; and a considerable thing that makes Religion difficult.

[Page 11] II. Another Difficulty ariseth from the Influence of the Senses. We are Creatures of sense, and sensible things do most powerfully move us, we are born Children, and live at first the life of Beasts: That Age receives deep Impressions; and those are made by the senses, whose Interest grows strong, and establisht in us before we come to the use of Reason; and af­ter we have arrived to the exercise of that, sensible objects still possess our Affections, and sway our Wills, and fill our Imaginations, and influence our Vnderstandings; so that we love, and hate; we desire and choose, we fancy, and we discourse according to those Impressions; and hence it is that we are enamour'd of Trifles, and fly from our Happiness; and pu [...]sue Vexation, and embrace Misery; and imagine Perversely, and reason Chil­dishly: for the influence of the Body and its Senses are the chief Foun­tains of Sin, and Folly, and Temp­tation: [Page 12] Upon which accounts it was that the Platonical Philosophers de­claim'd so earnestly against the Body, and ascrib'd all Evils and Michief to it; calling vice [...], corpore [...] Pestes, material Evils, and bodily Plagues. And the Apostle that un­derstood it better, calls Sin by the name of Flesh, Gal. 5. 17. Works of the Flesh, Gal. 5. 19. Law of the Members, Rom. 7. 23. and cries out upon the Body of this Death, Rom 7. 24.

And now this is our natural Con­dition, a state subject to the prevalent influences of Sense, and by this means to Sin and Temptation; and 'tis our Work in Religion, to mortifie the Bo­dy, Rom. 8. 13. and to cease from mkaing provision for the Flesh, Rom. 13. 14. and from fulfilling the Lusts thereof, Gal. 5. 14. To render our selves dead to the prevalent life of Sense and Sin, Rom. 6. 8. and 11. 5. and to arise to a new Life, Rom. 6. 4. The Life of Righteousness, and [Page 13] Faith, Hab. 2 4. A Life that hath other Principles, and other Pleasures; other Objects, and other Ends, and such as neither Eye hath seen, nor Ear heard, nor any of the Senses per­ceived. Yea, this is a Life that is ex­ercised in contradiction to the Judg­ments of sense. Its Joy, is Tribula­tion; Jam. 1. 2. Its Glory, Reproach­es; 2 Pet. 4. 14. Its Height, is Lowness; Luke 14. 11. Its Great­ness, in being Meanest; Matth. 20. 27. And its Riches, in having Nothing; 2 Cor. 6. 10. To such a Life as this, Religion is to raise us; and it must needs be difficult to make us, who are so much Brutes, to be so much Angels; us, who seem to live by nothing else but sense, to live by nothing less; This with a witness is an hard, and uneasie Work, and ano­ther difficulty in Religion.

III. A Third proceeds from the na­tural Disorder and Rage of our Passi­ons. Our Corrupt Natures are like [Page 14] the troubled Sea, Isa. 57. 20. And our Passions are the Wa [...]e of that O­cean; that tumble and swell, and keep a mighty noise; they dash against the Rocks, and break one against an­other; and our Peace and Happiness is shipwrackt by them. Our Passiions make us miserable. We are some­times stifled by their Numbers, and confounded by their Disorders, and torn to pieces by their Violence; mounted to the Clouds by Ambition, and thrown down to the deeep by Despair; scorcht by the flames of Lust, and overwhelmed by the Waters of unstable Desire; Passions fight one against ano­ther, and all against reason; they prevail over the Mind, and have usurpt the Government of our Actions, and involve us in continual Guilt and Misery. This is the natural State of Man; and our work in the way of Religion, is to restrain this Violence, and to rectifie these Disorders, and to reduce those Rebellious Powers under the Empire and Government of the [Page 15] Mind, their Soveraign. And so to re­gain the Divine Image, which consists much in the order of our Faculties; and the Subjection of the Brutish, to the reasonable Powers. This, I say, Religion aims at, to raise us to the perfection of our Natures, by mortify­ing those Members, Col. 3. 5. our unruly Passions and Desires; and cru­cifying the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts; Gal. 5. 24. And there­by to make us humble in Prosperity, quiet in Adversity; meek under Provo­cations, steady amidst Temptations, mo­dest in our Desires, temperate in our Injoyments, constant to our Resoluti­ons, and contented in all Conditions. Here is our great Business, and our Work is this: And certainly 'tis no easie thing to bring order out of a Cha­os, and to speak a Tempest in a Calm; to resist a Torrnt, and to stop and turn the Tyde; to subdue a Rebellious Rabble, and to change them from Tyrannical Masters, to Modest and O­bedient Servants: These, no doubt, [Page 16] are works of difficulty enough, and these must be our Imployment in the way of Religion; and on this score also, the Gate is straight.

IV. Our Work in Religion is yet more difficult, upon the account of Custom, to which we are subject, and by which we are swayed much. This is vulgarly said to be another Na­ture, and the Apostle calls it by that name, 1 Cor. 11. 14. Doth not Na­ture it self teach you, that if a Man have long Hair, it is a shame unto him? By the word Nature, the best Inter­preters say only Custom is meant; since long Hair is not declared shame­ful by the Law and Light of Nature, taken in its chief and properest sense: For then it had never been permit­ted to the Nazarites: But the contra­ry custom, in the Nations that used it not, made it seem shameful and inde­cent. There are other places in Scrip­ture and ancient Authors, wherein Nature is put for Custom: But I [Page 17] must not insist on this; the thing I am about is, that Custom is very powerful; and as it makes a kind of Nature, so, many times it masters and subdues it. Wild Creatures are here­by made gentle and familiar; and those that naturally are tame enough; are made to degenerate into wild­ness by it.

And now besides the original de­pravities of our Natures, we have con­tracted many vitious habits by corrupt and evil usages; which we were drawn into at first by pleasure and vanity in our young & inconsiderate years, while we were led by the directions of sense: These, by frequent acts, grow at last into habits; which though in their be­ginning they were tender as a Plant, and easie to have been crusht or blast­ed, yet time and use hardens them into the firmness of an Oak, that braves the Weather, and can endure the stroak of the Ax and a strong Arm.

Now to destroy and root up these obstinate customary evils, is another [Page 18] part of our Work. And Religion reacheth us to put off concerning the Old Conversation, the Old Man, Eph. 4. 22. and to receive new Impressions and Inclinations; to be renewed in the spirit of our Minds, 5. 23 and to put on the New Man, 5. 24. To make us new Hearts, Ezek. 18. 31. and to walk in newness of Life, Rom. 6. 4. This we are to do, and this we may well suppose to be hard work; the Scripture compares it to the changing the Skin of the Aethiopian, and the Spots of the Leopard, Jer. 13. 23. and elsewhere. How can they do good, that are accustomed to do evil? Jer. 13. 23. 'Tis hard, no doubt; and this is another difficulty in Religion.

V. The Power that Example hath over us, makes the way of Religion difficult. Example is more prevalent than Precept, for Man is a Creature given much to Imitation, and we are very apt to follow what we see others do, rather than what we ought to do our selves.

[Page 19] And now the Apostle hath told us, That the whole World lies in wick­edness, 1 Joh. 5. 19. and we sadly find it: we cannot look out of doors, but we see Vanity and Folly, Sensua­lity and Forgetfulness of God; Pride and Covetousness, Injustice and Intem­perance, and all other kinds of E­vils: These we meet with every where, in Publick Companies, and Private Conversations; in the High Ways, and in the Corners of the Streets.

The Sum is, Example is very pow­erful, and Examples of Vice are al­ways in our Eyes; we are apt to be reconciled to that which every one doth, and to do like it; we love the trod­den Path, and care not to walk in the Way which is gone in but by a few.

This is our Condition, and our work in Religion is, to overcome the strong Biass of corrupt Example; to strive against the Stream, to learn to be good, though few are so, and not to follow a Multitude to do Evil, Exod. 23. 2. This is our Busi­ness; [Page 20] and this is very Difficult.

VI. The last Difficulty I shall men­tion, ariseth from Worldly Interests and Engagements. We have many Necessities to serve, both in our Per­sons and our Families. Nature ex­cluded us naked into the World, without Cloathing for Warmth, or Armature for Defence; and Food is not provided to our Hands, as it is for the Beasts; nor do our Houses grow for our Habitation, and com­fortable abode. Nothing is prepa­red for our use without our Industry and Endeavours. So that by the Ne­cessity of this State, we are engaged in Worldly Affairs: These, Nature requires us to mind, and Religion permits it; and nothing can be done without our Care; and Care would be very troublesome, if there were not some Love to the Objects we exercise our Cares upon: Hence it is, that some Cares about the things of this world, and Love to them is allowed us; [Page 21] and we are commanded to continue in the Calling wherein God hath set us, 1 Cor. 7. 20. and are warned that we be not slothful in Business, Rom. 12. 11. We may take some delight al­so in the Creatures that God gives us, and love them in their degree: For the animal Life may have its moderate Gratifications; God made all things, that they might enjoy their Be­ing.

And now, notwithstanding all this, Religion commands us to set our Affections upon things above, Col. 3. 2. not to love the World, 1 Joh. 2. 15. to be careful for nothing, Phil. 4. 6. to take no thought for to morrow, Mat. 6. 34. The meaning of which Expressions is, That we should love God and Heavenly things, in the chief and first place; and avoid the immo­derate Desires of Worldly Love and Cares. This is our Duty: and 'tis very difficult: For by reason of the burry of Business, and those Passions that Earthly Engagements excite; [Page 22] we consider not things as we should, and so, many times perceive not the Bounds of our Permissions, and the Beginnings of our Restraints; where the allowed Measure ends, and the forbidden Degree commenceth: what is the difference between that Care that is a Duty, and that which is a Sin; Providence and Carking; and between that Love of the World which is Necessary and Lawful, and that which is Extravagant and Inor­dinate? I say, by reason of the hur­ry we are in, amidst Business and worldly Delights, we many times perceive not our Bounds, and so slide easily into Earthly-mindedness and anxiety. And it is hard for us, who are engaged so much in the World, and who need it so much, who con­verse so much with it and about it, and whose time and endeavours are so unavoidably taken up by it; I say 'tis hard for us, in such Circum­stances, to be crucified to the World, Gal. 6. 14. and to all inordinate Affe­ctions [Page 23] to it: to live above it and to set­tle our chief Delights and Cares on things at great distance from us, which are unsutable to our corrupt Appetites, and contrary to the most relishing Injoyments of Flesh; which Sense ne­ver saw nor felt, and which the I­magination it self could never grasp. This, no doubt, is hard Exercise, and this must be done in the way of Re­ligion; and on this Account also, it is very difficult.

Thus of the First Proposition, That there are great Difficulties in Religion. I come now to the Second.

II. THat those Difficulties may be o­vercome by striving; which im­ports both the Encouragement and the Means; That they may be vanquisht, and how.

(I.) That the Difficulties may be sub­dued, is clearly enough implyed, in the Precept; we should not have been commanded to strive, if it had been impossible to overcome. God [Page 24] doth not put his Creatures upon fruitless Undertakings: He never re­quires us to do any thing in order to that, which is not to be attained. Therefore when he was resolved not to be intreated for that stubborn and rebellious Nation. He would not have the Prophet pray for them, Jer. 7. 16. Pray not for this People, for I will not hear thee. He would not be petitioned for that, which he was de­termined not to grant. He puts not his Creatures upon any vain Expe­ctations and Endeavours; nor would he have them deceive themselves by fond Dependences. When one made this Profession to our Saviour, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Christ tells him, that he must expect from him no worldly Honours or Preferments; no Power or sensu­al Pleasure, no, not so much as the ordinary Accommodations of Life. The Foxes have Holes, and the Birds of the Ayre have Nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head. [Page 25] Luk. 9. 5, 8. He would not have the man that likely might look for these, upon the opinion of his being the Messias, in the Jewish sense, one that should at last, whatever the meanness of his Condition was at present, ap­pear as a Mighty, and Triumphant tem­poral Monarch; I say, our Saviour would not have the Man follow him for that, which he had not to bestow upon him. Since then that he who would not put us upon fruitless la­bours, hath commanded us to strive to enter; 'tis evident, that an entrance may be procured into the Gate by stri­ving, and that the Difficulties may be overcome.

The next thing in my Method is to shew, How; the manner is implyed in the Text; and exprest in the Propositi­on, viz. By striving; and by this, is meant, a resolute use of those means that are the Instruments of Happiness. They are three, Faith, Prayer, and active Endeavour.

[Page 26] (1.) Faith is a chief Instrument, for the overcoming the Difficulties of our way.

And Faith in the general, is the be­lief of a Testimony; Divine Faith the belief of a Divine Testimony; and the chief things to be believed, as encouragements and means for a Victo­ry over the Difficulties in Religion, are these; That God is reconciled to us by his Son; That he will assist our weak endeavous by the Aids of his Spirit; That he will reward us if we strive as we ought, with immortal Happiness in a World of endless Glory.

By our belief of God's being re­conciled, we are secured from those fears, that might discourage our ap­proaches and endeavours, upon the account of his Purity and Justice. By the Faith of his Assistance, all the objections against our striving, that a­rise from the greatness of the Diffi­culties, and the disproportionate smal­ness of our Strength, are answered. And from our believing eternal re­wards in another World, we have a [Page 35] mighty motive to engage our utmost diligence, to contest with all diffi­culties that would keep us from it.

What satisfaction is there, saith the believer, in the gratification of my corrupt Inclinations and Senses, in com­parison with that, which ariseth from the favour of God, and an Interest in his Son? What difficulties in my Du­ty, too great for Divine Aids? What pains are we to undergo in the nar­row and difficult way, that the Glory which is at the end of it, will not compensate? What is it to deny a base Inclination that will undo me; in obedience to him that made, and re­deemed me; and to despise the little things of present sense, for the hope of everlasting enjoyments; Trifting plea­sure, for Hallelujabs? What were it for me to set vigorously upon those Passions that degrade my noble Na­ture, and make me a slave and a beast, and will make me more vile, and more miserable; when the Spirit of the most High is at my right hand to as­sist [Page 36] me? Why should my noble Fa­culties, that were designed for glori­ous ends, be led into infamous pra­ctices by base Vsages, and dishonourable Customs? What is the example of a wicked, sensual, wretched World, to that of the Holy Jesus; and all the Army of Prophets, Apostles and Mar­tyrs? What is there in the World, that it should be loved more than God? and what is the Flesh, that it should have more of our time and care, than the great interests of our Souls?

Such are the Considerations of a mind, that Faith hath awakened; and by them it is prepared for vigorous striving. So that Faith is the Spring of all; and necessary to the other two Instruments of our Happiness. Besides which, it is acceptable to God, in it self, and so disposeth us for his graci­ous helps, by which we are enabled to overcome the Difficulties of our way. While a man considers the Difficulties only, and weighs them a­gainst his own strength, let him sup­pose [Page 37] the Liberty of his Will to be what he pleaseth, yet while 'tis un­der such disadvantages, that will sig­nifie very little; and he that sees no further, sits down in discouragement; But when the mind is fortified with the firm belief of Divine help, he at­tempts then with a noble vigour, which cannot miscarry, if it do not cool and faint. For he that endures to the end, shall be saved, Mat. 24. 13. Thus Faith sets the other Instruments of Happiness on work, and therefore 'tis deservedly reckoned as the first; and 'tis that which must always ac­company the exercises of Religion, and give them life and motion.

(II.) Prayer is another means we must use, in order to our overcoming the Difficulties of the way. Our own meer, natural Strength is weakness; and without supernatural helps those Difficulties are not to be surmounted. Those Aids are necessary, and God is ready to bestow them on us; For [Page 38] He would have all men to be saved, and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth, 1 Tim. 2. 4. But for these things he will be sought unto. And 'tis very just, and fit that we should address our selves to him by Prayer, to acknowledge our own insufficiency and dependence, on him for the mer­cies we expect; and thereby to own Him for the giver of every good and perfect gift; and to instruct our selves how his favours are to be received and used, viz. with Reverence and Thanksgiving: This, 'tis highly fit we should do; and the doing it pre­pares us for his blessings; and he fails not to bestow them on those that are prepared by Faith and Prayer; For he giveth liberally and upbraids not; And our Prayers are required, not as if they could move his will, which is always graciously inclined to our Happiness; But as it's that tribute which we owe our Maker and Be­nefactor; and that without which 'tis not so fit he shonld bestow his par­ticular [Page 39] favours on us. For it by no means becomes the Divine Majesty, to vouchsafe the specialties of his Grace and Goodness to those, that are not sensible they want them; and are not humbled to a due apprehen­sion of their weakness and depen­dence. But for such as are so, and express their humble desires in the Ardours of Holy Prayer, God never denies them the assistances of his Spi­rit: For if ye being evil (saith our Saviour) know how to give good gifts unto your Children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to those that ask Him? Mat. 7. 11.

And These Divine Helps obtain'd by Faith and Prayer, and join'd with our active constant endeavour, will not fail to enable us to overcome the Diffi­culties, and to procure us an entrance at the straight Gate. And so I come to the Third Instrument of our Hap­piness, which is implyed in striving, viz.

[Page 40] (III.) Active Endeavour, in which Repentance and the fruits of it are implied; Both Faith and Prayer are in order to this; and without it nei­ther can turn to account. For Faith without works is dead, Jam. 2. 20. and Prayer, without endeavour fruitless; yea indeed, in the Divine Estimate, it is none at all: 'Tis bodily exercise; no Prayer. For when we invoke Gods help, we desire it, that we may use it; Divine Grace is not a Treasure to lay up by us, but an Instrument to work with; and when we pray that God would assist us in our endeavours, and endeavour not at all, we mock God, and trifle with him in our Prayers: Endeavour then is necessary, and ne­cessary in a degree so eminent, that this is always included in Faith when 'tis taken in the highest and noblest Evangelical sense, viz. for the Faith which justifies and saves; for that comprehends all those endeavours, and their fruits, whereby we are made happy.

[Page 41] We must not expect that God should do all (exclusively) in the work of our Salvation. He doth his part, and we must do ours; (though we do that, by his help too.) He that made us without our selves, will not save us without our selves, said the Father. We are commanded to seek, Mat. 7. 7. To Run, 1 Cor. 9. 24. To fight, 1 Tim. 6. 12. To give di­ligence, 2 Pet. 1. 10. These all im­port Action and Endeavour. And that endeavour must not be only a faint purpose, or formal service; but it must be imployed in the highest de­gree of Care and Diligence. The King­dom of Heaven suffereth violence, Mat. 11. 12. and this violence must not be used in an heat, and sudden fit on­ly, that cools and dies, and contents it self with having been warm for a time: But it must be a steady and constant course of activity, a continu­al striving to overcome the remaining difficulties of the way.

We must endeavour vigorously and [Page 42] constantly; and in that, (after our Faith is strengthened by deep conside­ration, and Divine assistance implored by ardent Prayer) our course is,

(1.) To abstain from all the outward actions of Sin, and to perform the ex­ternal acts of the contrary Vertues. To cease to do evil, Isa. 1. 16. is the first step. When the Publicans askt John the Baptist, Luke 3. 12. what they should do; His direction was, that they should not exact, vers. 13. and to the Souldiers, asking the same question, he answers, Do Violence to no man, verf. 14. These were the sins of their particular Professions, which were to be quitted, before any thing could be done higher. We have or­dinarily more power over our actions, than our habits, and therefore we should begin here, and resolve deep­ly, by divine help, to cut off those supplies that feed vitious inclinations; for wicked habits are maintain'd by actions of Wickedness; when they ceafe, the inclinations grow more faint, and [Page 43] weak: and when we are come but thus far, to have confined our lusts, we shall be encouraged to proceed to destroy them. 'Tis said, There is no great distance between a Princes Prison and his Grave; The saying is most true in the case of Tyrants and Vsurpers; and the habits of sin are both; when they are restrain'd, they are not far from being destroyed, if we imploy our endeavours, and the divine aids, as we ought.

This then must be done First, and the other part of the advice must be taken with it, viz. we must practise the outward actions of the contrary Ver­tues. We must do well, when we cease to do evil. When we turn from darkness, it must be to light, Acts 26. 18. Not from one kind of dark­ness to another. When we cease to opprefs, we must be charitable; when we leave to tyrannize over our inferi­ours, we must be kind and helpful to them. When we forbear to slander, we must speak all the good we can of our Neighbour.

[Page 44] The outward actions of Vertue are in our power; and 'tis somewhat to come so far as this: What is more, viz. The inward love and delight in goodness, will succeed in time, if we persevere. 'Tis not safe for us to propose to our selves the greatest heights at first; if we do, we are discouraged, and fall back. God ac­cepts even of that little, if it be in order to more. He despiseth not the day of small things, Zech. 4. 10. If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted? Christ loved the young man who had kept the external part of the Commandments, Mark 10. 12. If he had had the courage to have pro­ceeded; what he had done, would have steaded him much. The inward love of Vertue and Holiness is pro­moted by the outward exercises of them, and hereby the contrary evils are both pined and thrust out.

Thus of the First thing that Endea­vour implies; upon this must follow,

(2.) An attempt upon evil habits, viz. [Page 45] Those that have been super-induced on us by Carelesness and Temptation, bad Customs and evil Company. Eve­ry victory is a means to another; we grow stronger, and the enemy weaker by it. To have overcome the out­ward acts of sin, is a beginning in our spiritual warfare; but our chief ene­mies are the habits; these must be attempted also, but with Prudence; wild Beasts are not to be dealt with by main strength; Art and Stratagem must be used in this War; and 'tis good policy, I think here, to fight the least powerful foes first, the contra­cted habits, before we fall on the inbred natural Inclinations. While our forces are weak, 'tis dangerous setting upon the strongest holds, viz. the vices of Complexion, which are woven into our very Natures. If a man apply all his force where he hath not resolution enough to go through with what he undertakes, he receives a foyl, and 'tis odds but he sits down and faints. Prudence therefore is to [Page 46] be used, where we distrust our strength: Fall upon Sin, where 'tis weakest, where it hath least of Nature, and least of Temptation; and where we have arguments from Reputation and worldly Interests wherewith to war against it. If we prevail, we are heart­ned by the success: Our Faith and Resolution will grow stronger by this experience, when we have triumph't over the sins of evil Custom, Exam­ple, and sensual Indulgence.

And when that is done, we must remember that 'tis not enough that those habits are thrust out; others must be planted in their room: when the soyl is prepared, the seed must be sown, and the seeds of vertuous habits, are the actions of vertue. These I recom­mended under the last head, and shall say more of the introducing of habits, under one that follows on purpose.

(3.) The next advance in our en­deavours, is, In the Strength of God, and in the Name of his Son, to assault the greater Devils, and to strive [Page 47] to cast out them; I mean the Sins of Complexion, and particular Nature. This is a great work, and will re­quire strong Faith, and many Prayers, and much Time, and great Watchful­ness, and invincible Resolution: Im­ploy these heartily; and though thou now and then mayst receive a foyl, yet give not off so, but rise again in the strength of God, implore new aid, and fortifie thy self with more con­siderations, and deeper resolves; and then renew the Combat upon the en­couragement of Divine Assistance, and Christ's Merits and Intercession, and the promise that sin shall not have Do­minion over us, Rom. 6. 14.

Remember, that this is the great work, and the biggest difficulty; if this be not overcome, all our other labour hath been in vain, and will be lost. If this root remain, it will still bear poysonous fruit, which will be mat­ter for Temptation, and occasion of continual falling; and we shall be in danger of being reconciled again [Page 48] to our old sins, and to undo all; and so our latter end will be worse than our beginning, 2 Pet. 2. 20. Or, at least, though we stand at a stay, and satisfie our selves with that; yet though we are contented, our conditi­on is not safe.

If we will endeavour to any pur­pose of duty, or security, we must proceed still after our lesser conquests, till the sins of Complexion are laid dead at our feet. He that is born of God, sinneth not, and he cannot sin, 1. Joh. 3. 9. Till we come to this, we are but strugling in the Birth.

Such a perfection as is mortifying of vitious temper, is I hope attainable, and 'tis no doubt that which Religi­on aims at; and though it be a diffi­cult height, yet we must not sit down this side: At least we must be always pressing on to this Mark: if Providence cut off our days before we have ar­rived to it, we may expect acceptance of the sincerity of our endeavours, up­on the account of the merits of our [Page 49] Saviour: For he hath procured favour for those sincere. Believers and Endea­voureres, whose Day is done before their work is compleated; this I mean, of subduing the darling sins of their particular Natures.

But then if we rest, and please our selves with the little Victories and Attainments, and let these our great Enemies quietly alone, 'tis an argu­ment our endeavours are not sincere, but much short of that striving, which will procure an entrance into the straight Gate. The next thing (and 'tis the last I shall mention) which is implyed in striving, is,

(4.) To furnish our selves, through Divine Grace, with the Habits and In­clinations of Holiness and Vertue. For Goodness to become a kind of Nature to the Soul, is height indeed; but such a one as may be reacht: the new Nature, and new Creature, Gal. 6. 15. are not meer names.

We have observ'd that some men are of a Natural Generosity, Veracity [Page 50] and Sweetness; and they cannot act contrary to these Native Vertues without a mighty Violence: why now should not the New Nature be as pow­erful as the Old? And why may not the Spirit of God, working by an active Faith and Endeavour, fix Ha­bits and Inclinations on the Soul, as prevalent as those? No doubt, it may, and doth, upon the Diviner Souls: For whom to do a wicked, or unwor­thy Action, 'twould be as violent and unnatural, as for the meek and com­passionate temper to butcher the inno­cent; or for him, that is naturally just, to oppress and make a prey of the Fa­therless and the Widow. I say, such a degree of perfection as this, should be aim'd at, Heb. 6. 1. and we should not slacken or intermit our endea­vours till it be attain'd.

In order to it, we are to use fre­quent meditation on the excellency and pleasure of Vertue and Religion; and earnest Prayer for the Grace of God; and diligent attendance upon the pub­lick [Page 51] worship; and pious Company and Converses: For this great design, these helps are requisite, and if we exercise our selves in them as we ought, they will fire our Souls with the love of God and Goodness; and so at last, all Christian Vertues will become as natural to us, as si [...] was before. And to one that is so prepared, the Gate of Happiness will be open, and of easie entrance; the difficulties are overcome, and from henceforth the way is plea­sant and plain before him, Prov. 3. 17.

Thus I have shewn, that the for­midable difficulties may be overcome, and How: 'tis a plain course I have directed, that will not puzzle mens understandings with needless niceties, nor distract their memories with mul­titndes. Let us walk in this way, and do it constantly, with vigour and alacrity; and there is no fear, but in the Strength of God, through the merits and mediation of his Son, we shall overcome, and at last enter.

I had now done with this general [Page 52] Head, but that 'tis necessary to note three things more.

(1.) Those Instruments of our Hap­piness which we must use in striving, viz. Faith, Prayer, and active Endea­vour, must all of them be imployed. Not any one singly, will do the great work; nor can the others, if any one be wanting. If we believe, and do not pray; or pray, and do not endea­vour; or endeavour, without those, the Difficulties will remain, and 'twill be impossible for us to enter.

(2.) We must be diligent in our course: If we do not exercise Faith vigorously, and pray heartily, and en­deavour with our whole might, the means will not succeed; and 'tis as good not at all, as not to purpose. The Difficulties will not be over­come by cold Faith, or sleepy Prayers, or remiss Endeavours: A very intense degree of these is necessary.

(3.) Our striving must be constant; we must not begin, and look back, Heb. 10. 38. or run a while, and stop [Page 53] in midd course, 1 Cor. 9. 24. and content our selves with some attain­ments, and think we have arrived, Phil. 3. 14. If we do so, we shall find our selves dangerously mistaken. The Crown is at the end of the Warfare, & the Prise at the end of the Race. If we will suc­ceed, we must hold on: The life of one that strives as he ought, must be a con­tinual motion forwards; always procee­ding, always growing.

If we strive thus, we cannot fail; if any of these qualifications be want­ing, we cannot but miscarry. And hence no doubt it is, that many that seek to enter, shall not be able, and the presumed sons of the Kingdom are shut out, Mat. 8.12. They seek, and are ve­ry desirous to be admitted; They do some thing, and strive; but their stri­ving is partial, or careless, or short; by reason of which defects, they do not overcome, and shall not enter.

This is a dangerous Rock, and per­haps there are as many undone by cold and half striving, as by not stri­ving [Page 54] at all. He that hath done some thing, presumes he is secure; He goes the round of ordinary Duties, but ad­vanceth nothing in his way; He over­cometh none of the great Difficulties, none of the Habits or depraved In­clinations; He is contented with other things that make a more glorious shew; though they signifie less; and perhaps despiseth these, under the notion of Morality; and so presuming, that he is a Saint too soon, he never comes to be one at all: such are the Seekers that shall not be able to enter: Their seeking imports some striving; but 'tis such, as, though it be specious, yet it is imperfect, and will not succeed. And hence the Third Proposition ari­seth, that I proposed to discourse.

(III.) THat there is a sort of Stri­ving that will not procure an entrance: implyed in these words, For many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

'Tis a dangerous thing to be flat­tered [Page 55] into a false peace; and to take up with imperfect Godliness; to re­concile the hopes of Heaven to our beloved sins, and to judge our condi­tion safe upon insufficient grounds. This multitudes do, and 'tis the great danger of our days; Men cannot be contented without doing something in Religion; but they are contented with a little. And then they reckon themselves godly, before they are ver­tuous; and take themselves to be Saints, upon such things as will not distinguish a good man from a bad.

We seek after Marks of Godliness, and would be glad to know, how we might try our state: The thing is of great importance; and if the Signs we judge by are either false, or imperfect, we are deceived to our undoing. Meer Speculative mistakes about Opinions, do no great hurt; but errour in the Marks and Mea­sures of Religion is deadly. Now there are sundry things commonly taken for signs of Godliness, which [Page 56] though they are something, yet they are not enough; They are hopeful for beginnings, but nothing worth when they are our end and rest. They are a kind of seeking aud im­perfect striving; but not such as over­cometh the difficulties of the way, or will procure us an entrance at the Gàte. Therefore to disable the flat­tering, insufficient Marks of Godliness, I shall discover in pursuance of the Third Proposition, How far a man may strive in the exercises of Religi­on, and yet be found at last among those seekers that shall not be able to enter. And though I have intimated something of this in the general be­fore, yet I shall now more particu­larly shew it in the instances that fol­low. And in these I shall discover a Religion that may be called Animal, to which the natural man may attain.

(I.) A Man may believe the Truths of the Gospel, and assent heartily to all the Articles of the Creed: and if [Page 57] he proceeds not, he is no further by this, than the faith of Devils, Jam. 2. 19.

(2.) He may go on, and have a great thirst to be more acquainted with Truth; He may seek it diligently in Scripture, and Sermons, and good Books, and knowing Company; And yet do this, by the motion of no higher Principle, than an inbred Cu­riosity, and desire of Knowledg; and many times this earnestness after Truth, proceeds from a proud effection to wiser than our Neighbours, that we may pity their darkness; or the itch of a disputing humour, that we may out talk them; or a design to carry on, or make a party, that we may be called Rabbi, or serve an In­terest: and the zeal for Truth that is set on work by such motives, is a spark of that fire that is from beneath: 'Tis dangerous to a mans self, and to the publick Weal of the Church and mankind, but the man proceeds, and is,

[Page 58] (3.) Very much concern'd to defend and propagate his Faith; and the Pha­risees were so in relation to theirs, Matt. 23. 15. and so have been ma­ny Professors of all the Religions that are, or ever were. Men natu­rally love their own Tenents, and are ambitious to mould others judg­ments according to theirs. There is glory in being an Instructer of other men; and turning them to our ways and opinions: So that here is nothing yet above Nature; nothing but what may be found in many that seek, and are shut out. But,

(4.) Faith works greater effects than these, and Men offer themselves to Martyrdom for it; This, one would think, should be the greatest height, and an argument that all the diffi­culties of the way, are overcome by one that is so resolved; and that the Gate cannot but be opened to him. And so, no doubt it is, when all things else are sutable: But otherwise these consequences by no means follow. [Page 59] St. Paul supposeth that a man may give his Body to be burned, and not have Charity, without which his Martyrdom will not profit, 1 Cor. 13. For one to deny his Religion, or what he believes to be certain, and of great­est consequence, is dishonourable and base: and some out of principles of meer natural bravery, will die rather than they will do it; and yet, upon other accounts be far enough from being heroically vertuous. Besides, the de­sire of the glory of Martyrdom and Saintship after it, may in some be strong­er than the terrours of Death: and we see frequently, that men will sa­crifice their lives to their Honour and Reputation; yea to the most contemptible shadows of it. And there is no passion in us so weak, no lust so impotent, but hath, in many in­stances, prevail'd over the fear of dy­ing. Every Appetite hath had its Martyrs; and all Religions theirs; and though a man give his Body to be burnt for the best, and have not [Page 60] Charity, viz. Prevalent love to God and Men, it will not signifie: So that Martyrdom is no infallible mark, nor will it avail any thing, except sincere endeavour to overcome the greater dif­ficulties, have gone before it. Thus far Faith may go without effect: and yet one step further.

(5.) Men may confidently rely upon Christ for Salvation, and be firmly per­swaded that he hath justified, and will make them happy. They may appro­priate him to themselves, and be plea­sed mightily in the opinion of his be­ing theirs. And yet notwithstanding this confidence may be in the number of those seekers that shall not enter. For Christ is the Author of Eternal life, only to those that obey him, Heb. 5. 9. and to obey him, is to strive vi­gorously and constantly, to overcome all our sinful Inclinations and Habits. And those that trust he will save them, though they have never seriously set about this work, deceive themselves by vain presumption, and in effect [Page 61] say, that he will dissolve or dispense with his Laws in their favour. For he requires us to deny our selves, Mar. 8. 34. To mortifie the body, Rom 8. 13. To love enemies, Mat. 5. 44. To be meek, Mat. 11. 29. and patient, Jam. 5. 8. and humble, 1 Pet. 5. 7. and just, Mat. 7. 12. and charitable, Heb. 13. 16. and Holy, as he that called us is holy, 1 Pet. 1. 15. And he hath promised to save upon no other terms; For all these are included in Faith, when 'tis taken in the justifying sense, and this is the Way of Happiness and Salvation: If we walk not in this, but in the paths of our own choosing, our relying upon Christ is a mockery, and will deceive us.

We may indeed be confident, and we ought, that he will save all those that so believe as to obey him; but may not trust that he will save us except we are some of those. To rely upon Christ for our Salvation, must follow our sincere and obedient striving, and not go before it. The mistake [Page 62] of this is exceeding dangerous, and I doubt hath been fatal to many. The sum is to rely on Christ, with­out a resolute and steady endeavour to overcome every sin and tempta­tion, will gain us nothing in the end but shame and dissappointment: For 'tis not every one that faith unto him, Lord, Lord, shall enter into Hea­ven, but he that doth the will of his Father which is in Heaven. Mat. 7.21. The foolish Virgins relyed upon him, and expected he should open to them; Lord, Lord, open to us, Mat. 25. 11. but he kept them out, and would not know them, v. 11.

Thus of the First imperfect Mark of Godliness; A man may upon the account of meer Nature, arrive to all the mentioned degrees of Faith; and yet if his endeavours in the practice of Christian vertues be not suitable, he will certainly come short at last.

(II.) A man may be very devout, given much to Prayer, and be very [Page 63] frequent and earnest in it; He may have the gift of expressing himself fluently, without the help of Form or Meditation: yea, and so intent and taken up in these exercises, that he may as it were be ravish't out of him­self by the fervours of his Spirit; so that he really kindles very high Affections as well in others, as in him­self: And yet if he rests in this, and such like things as Religion, and reckons that he is accepted of God for it; if he allow himself in any unmortified lusts, and thinks to com­pound for them by his Prayers, he is an evil man notwithstanding, and one of those seekers that shall not be able to enter. The Pharisees, we know, were much given to Prayer: They were long in those Devotions, and very earnest in them often repeating the same expressions out of vehe­mence. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuites, was a man almost ecsta­tical in his Prayers; and Hacket the Blasphemer, executed in the days of [Page 64] Queen Elizabeth, was a person of Se­raphical Devotion, and would pray those that heard him even into trans­ports. Basilides the cruel Duke of Mos [...]o, is said to have his hands al­most continually lifted up in Prayer, except when they were imployed in some barbarous and bloody Executi­on: And we have known and felt one not much unlike him. There are infinite instances in our days of this dangerous sort of evil men.

And we may learn hence, that the greatest gift of Prayer, and earnestness and frequency in it, is no good mark of Godliness, except it be attended with sincere, constant and vertuous en­deavours.

For some men have a natural spice of Devotion in a Religious Melancholy, which is their temper; and such have commonly strong Imaginations and zealous affections, which when they are heated, flame forth into great heights and expressions of Devotion: The warm Fancy furnisheth words [Page 65] and matter readily and unexpectedly, which many times begets in the man a conceit that he is inspired, and that his Prayers are the breathings of the Holy Ghost; or at least, that he is ex­traordinarily assisted by it; which be­lief kindles his affections yet more, and he is carryed beyond himself, e­ven into the third Heavens, and Sub­urbs of Glory, as he fancies, and so he makes no doubt, but that he is a Saint of the first rank, and special favourite of Heaven; when all this while, he may be really a bad man full of Envy and Malice; Pride and Co­vetousness; Scorn and ill Nature; con­tempt of his Betters, and disobedience to his Governours. And while it is so, not­withstanding those glorious things, he is no further than the Pharisee. Hearty and humble desire, though im­perfectly exprest, and without this pomp, and those wonders, is far more acceptable to God, who delights not in the exercises of meer Nature Psal. 147. 10. but is well pleased with [Page 66] the expressions of Grace in those that fear him.

So that a sincere and lowly-minded Christian that talks of no immediate incomes, or communications; and per­haps durst not, out of reverence, trust to his own present conceptions in a work so solemn, but useth the help of some pious form of words sutable to his defires and wants, who is duly sensible of his sins, and the necessity of overcoming them; and is truly and earnestly desirous of the Divine aids, in order to it: such a one as this Prays by the Spirit, and will be assist­ed by it; while the other doth all by meer Nature and Imitation, and shall not have those spiritual aids which he never heartily desires nor intends to use.

This, I think, I may truly and safely say: But for the Controversie between Forms and Conceived Pray­ers, which of them is absolutely best, I determine nothing of it here. And indeed I suppose that in their own [Page 67] nature, they are alike indifferent, and are more or less accepted, as they partake more or less of the Spirit of Prayer, viz. of Faith, Humility and ho­ly desire of the good things we pray for; and a man may have these that prays by a Form; and he may want them that takes the other way, and thinks himself in a dispensation much above it. So that my business is not to set up one of these ways of De­votion against the other, but to shew, that the heights and vehemencies of many warm people in their unpreme­ditated Prayers, have nothing in them supernatural or Divine, and conse­quently, of themselves, they are no marks of Godliness: which I hope no one thinks I speak to discredit those pious ardours that are felt by really devout Souls, when a vigorous sense of God, and Divine things, doth e­ven sometimes transport them: Far be it from me to design any thing so impious; my aim is only to note, that there are complexional heats rai­sed [Page 68] many times by fancy and self-ad­miration, that look like these, in per­sons who really have little of God in them; and we should take care that we are not deceived by them. Thus far also those may go that shall not enter. I add,

(III.) A man may endeavour some­what, and strive in some degree, and yet his work may miscarry, and him­self with it.

(1.) There is no doubt, but that an evil man may be convinced of his sin and vileness, and that even to an­guish and torment. The Gentiles saith the Apostle, Rom. 2. 14. which have not the Law, shew the works of the Law written in their Hearts, their thoughts in the mean time accusing, or excusing one another. Conscience of­ten stings and disquiets the vilest sin­ners; and sometimes extorts from them lamentable confessions of their sins, and earnest declamations against them. They may weep bitterly at their remembrance, and be under [Page 69] great heaviness and dejection upon their occasion. They may speak vehe­mently against sin themselves, and love to have others to handle it severely. All this bad men may do upon the score of natural fear, and self love, and the apprehension of a fature judgment. And now such convictions will naturally beget some endeavours: A convinced understanding will have some influence upon the will and affections. The mind in the unregenerate, may lust a­gainst the Flesh, as that doth against it.

So that (2.) such a meer animal man may promise, and purpose, and endeavour in some pretty considerable measure; but then, he goes not on with full Resolution, but wavers and stops, and turns about again; and lets the law of the members, that of death and sin, to prevail over him. His endeavour is remiss, and conse­quently ineffectual; it makes no con­quests, and will not signifie. He sins on, though with some regret; and his [Page 70] very unwillingness to sin, while he commits it, is so far from lessening, that it aggravates his fault: It ar­gues that he sins against conscience and conviction; and that sin is strong and reigns.

'Tis true indeed, St. Paul, Rom. 7. makes such a description seemingly of himself, as one might think con­cluded him under this state; he saith vers. 8. That sin wrought in him all manner of concupiscence: vers. 9. That sin revived, and he died: vers. 14. That he was carnal; and again; sold under sin, vers. 20. That sin dwelt in him, and wrought that which he would not: vers. 23. That the Law of his Members led him into captivity to the law of Sin: and vers. 25. That he obeyed the law of sin.

If this be so, and St. Paul, a rege­nerate man, was in this state, it will follow, that seeking and feeble endea­vour, that overcometh no difficulty, may yet procure an entrance, and he that is come hitherto, viz. to endea­vour; [Page 71] is safe enough though he do not conquer.

This objection presseth not only a­gainst this head, but against my whole Discourse, and the Text it self. Therefore to answer it, I say, That the St. Paul here is not to be under­stood of himself; He describes the state of a convinced, but unregenerate man, though he speaks in the first person; a Figure that was ordinary with this Apostle, and frequent e­nough in common speech: Thus we say, I am thus, and thus, and did so, and so, when we are describing a state, or actions in which perhaps we, in person, are not concerned.

In this sense the best Expositors understand these expressions, and those excellent Divines of our own, Bishop Taylor, and Dr. Hammond, and others have noted to us, That this description is directly contrary to all the Characters of a regenerate man, given elsewhere by this, and the other Apostles. As he is said to be dead to [Page 72] sin, Rom. 6. 11. Free from sin, and the servant of Righteousness, Rom. 6. 18. That he walks not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit, Rom. 8. 1. That the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made him free from the Law of sin and death, Rom. 8. 2. That he overcometh the world, Joh. 5. 4. He sinneth not, 1 Joh. 3. 6. He hath cru­cified the flesh with its affections and lusts, Gal. 5. 24. Which Characters of a truly regenerate person, if they be compared with those above-cited out of Rom. 7. it will appear, that they are as contrary, as 'tis possible to speak, and by this, 'tis evident that they describe the two contrary states.

For can the regenerate be full of all manner of concupiscence, and at the same time be crucified to the Flesh, and its affections and lusts? one in whom sin revives while he dies; and yet one that is dead to sin? carnal, and yet not walking after the flesh, but after the Spirit? sold under sin, and [Page 73] yet free from sin? Having sin dwelling in him; and a captive to sin; and obeying the Law of sin; and yet free from the law of sin and death? how can these things con­sist? To tell us, 'Tis so, and 'tis not so, and to twist such contradictions into Ortho­dox Paradoxes, are pretty things to please Fools and Children; but wise men care not for riddles that are not sense. For my part I think it clear, that the Apostle in that mistaken Chap­ter, relates the feeble, impotent con­dition of one that was convinced and strove a little, but not to purpose. And if we find our selves comprised under that description, though we may be never so sensible of the evil and dan­ger of a sinful course, and may endea­vour some small matter, but without success, we are yet under, that evil, and obnoxious to that danger: For he that strives in earnest, conquers at last, and advanceth still, though all the work be not done at once. So that if we endeavour and gain nothing, our endeavour is peccant, and wants Faith [Page 74] or Prayer for Divine aids, or constancy, or vigour; and so, Though we may seek, we shall not be able to enter.

But (3) an imperfect Striver may overcome sin in some Instances, and yet in that do no great matter neither, if he lies down, and goes no further: There are some sins we outgrow by age, or are indisposed to them by bo­dily infirmity, or diverted by occasions, and it may be by other sins; and some are contrary to worldly Interests, to our credit, or health, or profit; and when we have in any great degree been hurt by them in these, we fall out with those sins, and cease from them, and so by resolution and disuse, we master them at last fully: which, if we went on, and attempted up­on all the rest, were something: But when we stop short in these petty victories, our general state is not alter­ed; He that conquers some evil appe­tites, is yet a slave to others; and though he hath prevailed over some difficulties, yet the main ones are yet be­hind.

[Page 75] Thus the imperfect Striver masters, it may be, his beastly appetite to in­temperate drinking, but is yet under the power of Love and Riches, and vain Pleasure. He ceaseth from open de­bauchery, but entertains spiritual wick­edness in his heart: He will not Swear, but will backbite and rail: He will not be Drunk, but will damn a man for not being of his opinion: He will not prophane the Sab­bath, but will defraud his Neigh­bour.

Now these half conquests, when we rest in them, are as good as none at all. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have regard to all thy Com­mandments, saith the Kingly Prophet, Psal. 119. 6. 'Tis shameful to give off, when our work is but half done; what we do, casts the greater reproach upon us for what we omit. To cease to be prophane, is something as a pas­sage, but nothing for an end. We are not Saints as soon as we are civil. 'Tis not only gross sins that are to [Page 76] be overcome. The wages of sin is death, not only of the great and ca­pital, but of the smallest, if they are indulged. The Pharisee applauded himself, that he was not like the Ex­tortioners, Adulterers and Vnjust, nor like the Publican, that came to pray with him, Luk. 18. 11. and yet he went away never the more justified. The unwise Virgins were no profli­gate Livers, and yet they were shut out.

He that will enter, must strive a­gainst every corrupt appetite and in­clination. A less leak will sink a Ship, as well as a greater, if no care be taken of it. A Consumption will kill, as well as the Plague; yea some­times the less Disease may in the e­vent prove more deadly, than the greater; for small distempers may be neglected, till they become incurable; when as the great ones awaken us to speedy care for a remedy. A small hurt in the finger slighted, may prove a Gangreen, when a great wound in [Page 77] the Head by seasonable applications is cured.

'Tis unsafe then to content our selves with this, that our sins are not foul and great, those we account little ones, may prove as fatal, yea they are sometimes more dangerous: For we are apt to think them none at all, or Venial infirmities that may consist with a state of Grace, and Divine fa­vour; we excuse and make Apologies for them, and fancy that Hearing, and Prayer, and Confession are atone­ments enough for these. Upon which accounts I am apt to believe, that the less notorious Vices have ruined as many as the greatest Abo­minations. Hell doth not consist on­ly of Drunkards, and Swearers, and Sabbath-breakers: No, the demure Pharisee, the plausible Hypocrite, and formal Professor, have their place al­so in that lake of fire. The great impieties do often startle and awaken conscience, and beget strong convi­ctions, and so sometimes excite reso­lution [Page 78] and vigorous striving; while men hug themselves in their lesser sins, and carry them unrepented of to their Graves.

The sum is, we may overcome some sins, and turn from the grosser sorts of wickedness, and yet if we endea­vour not to subdue the rest, we are still in the condition of unregeneracy and death, and though we thus seek, we shall not enter.

(4.) A man may perform many du­ties of Religion, and that with relish and delight, and yet miscarry. As,

(1.) He may be earnest and swift to hear, and follow Sermons con­stantly from one place to another, and be exceedingly pleased and affected with the Word, and yet be an evil Man, and in a bad state. Herod heard John Baptist gladly, Mark 6. 20. and he that received the seed into stony places, received it joyfully, Mat. 13. 20. Zeal for hearing doth not always arise from a consciencious de­sire to learn in order to practise, but [Page 79] sometimes it proceeds from an itch after novelty and notions, or an ambi­tion to be famed for Godliness; or the importunity of natural conscience, that will not be satisfied except we do something; or a desire to get mat­ter to feed our opinions, or to furnish us with pious discourse? I say, ear­nestness to hear, ariseth very often from some of these; and when it doth so, we gain but little by it: yea, we are dangerously tempted to take this for an infallible token of our Saintship, and so to content our selves with this Religion of the Ear, and to disturb every body with the abundance of our disputes and talk, while we neglect our own Spi­rits, and let our unmortified affections and inclinations rest in quiet, under the shadow of these specious ser­vices.

So that when a great affection to hearing seizeth upon an evil man, 'tis odds but it doth him hurt; it puffs him up in the conceit of his Godli­ness, [Page 80] and makes him pragmatical, troublesome and censorious; He turns his food into poyson: Among bad men, those are certainly the worst, that have an opinion of their being godly; and such are those that have itching ears, under the power of vitious habits and inclinations. Thus an earnest di­ligent hearer, may be one of those who seeks, and is shut out. And so may

(2.) He that Fasts much, and se­verely: The Jews were exceedingly given to fasting, and they were very severe in it. They abstained from all things pleasant to them, and put on sackcloth, and sowre looks, and mourn­ed bitterly, and hung down the head, and sate in ashes; so that one might have taken these for very holy, pe­nitent, mortified people that had a great antipathy against their sins, and abhor­rence of themselves for them: And yet God complains of these strict se­vere Fasters, Zach. 7. 5. That they did not Fast unto him; but fasted [Page 81] for strife and debate, Isa. 58. 4. Their Fasts were not such as he had chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to un­do the heavy burden, and to let the oppres­sed free, vers. 6. But they continued, notwithstanding their Fasts, and God's admonitions by his Prophets, to oppress the Widow, and Fatherless, and Poor, Zach. 7. 10.

Thus meer natural and evil men sometimes put on the garb of Mor­tification, and exercise rigors upon their Bodies and external persons, in exchange for the indulgences they allow their beloved appetites; and while the strict Discipline reacheth no further, though we keep days, and Fast often, yet this will not put us beyond the conditi­on of the Pharisee, who fasted twice in the week, as himself boasted, Luke 18. 12. And,

(3.) An imperfect striver may be ve­ry much given to pious and religious discourses: He may love to be talk­ing of Divine things; especially of [Page 82] the love of Christ to sinners, which he may frequently speak of with much earnestness and affection, and have that dear name always at his tongues end to begin and close all his sayings; and to fill up the void pla­ces, when he wants what to say next; and yet this may be a bad man, who never felt those Divine things he talks of; and never loved Christ heartily as he ought.

'Twas observed before, that there are some who have a sort of Devout­ness, and Religion in their particular Complexion; and if such are talkative (as many times they are) they will easily run into such discourses, as a­gree with their temper, and take plea­sure in them for that reason; As also for this, because they are apt to gain us reverence, and the good opinion of those with whom we converse. And such as are by nature disposed for this faculty, may easily get it by imi­tation and remembrance of the devout forms they hear and read: so that [Page 83] there may be nothing Divine in all this; nothing but what may consist with unmortified lusts and affections: And though such talk earnestly of the love of Christ, and express a mighty love to his name, yet this may be without any real conformity unto him in his Life and Laws. The Jews spoke much of Moses, in him they believed, and in him they trusted, John 5. 45. His name was a sweet sound to their ears, and 'twas very pleasant upon their Tongues; and yet they hated the Spirit of Moses, and had no love to those Laws of his which condemned their wicked acti­ons. And we may see how many of those love Christ, that speak often and affectionately of him, by obser­ving how they keep his Command­ments, John 14. 15. especially those of Meekness, Mercy, and universal Love.

Thus imperfect Strivers may im­ploy themselves in the external offices of Religion: I have instanced only [Page 84] in Three, the lik may be said of the rest. And to this, I add,

(IV.) That they may not only ex­ercise themselves in the outward mat­ters of duty, but may arrive to some things that are accounted greater heights, and are really more spiritual, and re­fined. To instance.

(I.) They may have some love to God, Goodness, and good Men. The Soul naturally loves Beauty and Per­fection; and all mankind apprehend God, to be of all Beings, the most beautiful and perfect; and therefore must needs have an intellectual love for him: The reason that that love takes no hold of the passions in wicked men, is, partly because they are di­verted from the thoughts of Him, by the objects of Sense; but chiefly, because they consider him as their enemy, and therefore can have no com­placency or delight in him, who they think hath nothing but thoughts of enmity, and displeasure against them. But if once they come to be perswa­ded [Page 85] (as many times, by such false marks, as I have recited, they are) that God is their Father, and pecu­liar Friend; that they are his chosen, and his darlings, whom he loved from Eternity, and to whom he hath given his Son and his Spirit, and will give Himself, in a way of the fullest enjoyment; Then the Love that before was only an esteem in the understanding, doth kindle in the af­fections by the help of the conceit of Gods loving them so dearly, and the passion thus heated, runs out, even into seraphick, and rapturous Devo­tions; while yet all this, is but meer animal love, excited chiefly, by the love of our selves, not of the Divine Perfections. And it commonly goes no further, then to earnest expressi­ons of extraordinary love to God in our Prayers and Discourses, while it appears not in any singular obedience to his Laws, or generous and univer­sal love to mankind: which are the ways whereby the true Divine Love [Page 86] is exprest: for, This is the love of God, that we keep his Commandments, saith the Apostle, 1 John. 5. 3. And as to the other, thus, If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us, 1 John 4. 12. And on the contrary, If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a lyar, John 4. 20. Charity then and universal obedience are the true argu­ments and expressions of our love to God; and these suppose a victory over corrupt inclinations and self-will. But the other love which ariseth from the conceit of our special dearness to God upon insufficient grounds; that goes no further then to some suavities, and pleasant fancies within our selves; and some passionate complements of the Image we have set up in our ima­ginations. This Love will consist with Hatred and contempt of all that are not like our selves; yea, and it will produce it: those poysonous fruits, and vile affections may be in­couraged, and cherish'd under it. So [Page 87] that there may be some love to God in evil men: But while self-love is the only motive, and the more prevalent passion, it signifieth nothing to their advantage.

And as the imperfect striver may have some love to God, so he may to piety and vertue: every man loves these in Idea. The vilest sinner takes part in his affections with the vertuous and religious, when he seeth them descri­bed in History or Romance; and hath a detestation for those, who are cha­racter'd as impious and immoral. Ver­tue is a great Beauty, and the mind is taken with it, while 'tis consi­der'd at a distance; and our cor­rupt interests, and sensual affecti­ons are not concern'd. 'Tis these that recommend sin to our love, and choice, while the mind ftands on the side of vertue: with that we serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the Law of Sin, Rom 7. 25. So that most wicked men, that are not dege­nerated into meer Brutes, have this [Page 88] mental and intellectual love to good­ness: That is, they approve, and like it in their minds, and would practise it also, were it not for the prevalent biass of flesh and sense.

And hence it will follow likewise, That the same may approve and res­pect good men; They may reverence and love them for their Charity, Humility, Justice and Temperance, though themselves are persons of the contrary Character; yea, they may have a great and ardent affection for those that are eminently pious and devout, though they are very irreligi­ous themselves. The conscience of ver­tue, and of the excellency of Religion, may produce this in the meer natural man, who is under the dominion of vile inclinations and affections; and therefore, neither is this a good mark of godliness. Our love to God & goodness will not stead us, except it be preva­lent. And as the love described, may be natural, and a meer animal man may arrive unto it: So,

[Page 89] (2.) He may to an extraordinary zeal for the same things that are the objects of his love. Hot tempers are eager, where they take either kindness or displeasure. The natural man that hath an animal love to Religi­on, may be violent in speaking, and acting for things appertaining to it. If his temper be devotional and passi­onate, he becomes a mighty zealot, and fills all places with the fame of his godliness: His natural fire moves this way, aud makes a mighty blaze. Ahab was very zealous, & 'tis like 'twas not only his own interest that made him so, 2 Kings 10. 16. The Phari­risees were zealous people, and cer­tainly their zeal was not always per­sonated, and put on, but real; though they were Hypocrites, yet they were such, as, in many things deceived themselves, as well as others. They were zealous for their Traditions, and they believ'd 'twas their duty to be so. St. Paul while a persecutor, was zealous against the Disciples, and he [Page 90] thought he ought to do many things a­gainst that name. And our Saviour foretells, that those zealous murder­ers that should kill his Saints, should think, They did God good service in it, John 16. 2. So that all the zeal of the natural man is not feigning, and acting of a part; nor hath it always evil objects. The Pharisees were zealous against the wickedness of the Publicans and Sinners. Zeal, and that in earnest, and for Religi­on may be in bad men. But then, this is to be noted, that 'tis com­monly about opinions or external rites, and usages, and such matters as ap­pertain to first Table Duties, while usually the same men are very cold, in reference to the Duties of the Second: And when Zeal is partial, and spent about the little things that tend not to the over­coming the difficulties of our way, or the perfecting of humane nature, 'tis a meer animal fervour, and no Di­vine Fire. And the natural man, the [Page 91] Seeker that shall not enter, may grow up to another height that looks gle­riously, and seems to speak mighty things. As,

(3.) He may have great comforts in religious meditations, and that even to rapturous excesses. He may take these, for sweet Communion with God, and the joys of the Holy Ghost, and the earnest of Glory, and be lifted up on high by them, and enabled to speak in wonderful ravishing strains; and yet notwithstanding be an evil man, and in the state of such as shall be shut out.

For this we may observe, That those whose complexion inclines them to devotion, are commonly much un­der the power of melancholy; and they that are so, are mostly very va­rius in their tempers; fometimes mer­ry, and pleasant to excess; and then plung'd as deep into the other extream of sadness and dejection: one while the sweet humours enliven the ima­gination, and present it with all [Page 92] things that are pleasant and agreeable; And then, the black blood succeeds, which begets clouds and darkness, and fills the fancy with things fright­ful and uncomfortable: And there are very few but feel such varieties, in a degree, in themselves. Now while the sweet Blood and Humours prevail, the person whose complexion inclines him to Religion, and who hath ar­rived to the degrees newly discours'd of (though a meer natural man) is full of inward delight, and satisfacti­on [...] and fancies at this turn, that he is much in the favour of God, and a sure Heir of the Kingdom of Glory; which must needs excite in him ma­ny luscious, and pleasant thoughts: and these further warm his imaginati­on, which, by new, and taking sug­gestions still raiseth the affections more; and so the man is as it were transport­ed beyond himself; and speaks like one dropt from the Clouds: His tongue flows with Light, and Glories, and Communion, and Revelations, and In­comes; [Page 93] and then, believes that the Holy Ghost is the Author of all this, and that God is in him of a truth, in a special way of Manifestation and Vouchsafement. But when melancho­lick vapours prevail again; the Ima­gination is overcast, and the Fancy pos­sest by dismal and uncomfortable thoughts; and the man, whose head was but just before among the Clouds, is now groveling in the Dust: He thinks all is lost, and his condi­tion miserable; He is a cast-away, and undone; when in the mean while, as to Divine favour he is just where he was before, or rather in a better state, since 'tis better to be humbled with reason, then to be lifted up without it. Such effects as these do meer naturalpas­sions and imaginations produce, when they are tinctured and heightned by religious melancholly. To deny ones self, and to overcome ones passions, and to live in a course of a sober Vertue, is much more Divine than all this.

'Tis true indeed, and I am far [Page 94] from denying it, that holy men feel those joys and communications of the Divine Spirit which are no fancies; and the Scripture calls them great peace, Psal. 119. 165. and joy in be­lieving, Rom. 15. 13. and the peace of God that passeth all understanding, Phil. 4. 7. But then, these Divine Vouchsafements are not rapturous, or ecstatical: They are no sudden flashes that are gone in a moment, leaving the Soul in the regions of sorrow, and despair; but sober lasting com­forts, that are the reward's and re­sults of vertue; the rejoycings of a good conscience, 2 Cor. 1. 12. and the manifestations of God to those rare souls, who have overcome the evils of their natures; and the difficulties of the way, or are vigorously pressing on towards the mark, Phil. 3. 14. But for such as have only the forms of godliness I have mentioned, while the evil inclinations and habits are in­dulged, (whatever they may pretend) all the sweets they talk of, are but [Page 95] the imagery of dreams, and the plea­sant delusions of their fancies.

THus I have shewn how far the meer animal Religion may go, in imperfect striving: And now. I must expect to hear,

(1.) That this is very severe, un­comfortable Doctrine; and if one that shall eventually be shut out, may do all this, what shall become of the generality of Religious men that ne­ver do so mtch? And if all this be short, what will be available? who then shall be saved?

To which I Answer, That we are not to make the measures of Religi­on and Happiness our selves; but to take those that Christ Jesus hath made for us: And he hath told us, That except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Mat. 5. 20. Now the Scribes and Pharisees did things in the way of Religion, that [Page 96] that were equal to all the particulars: I have mentioned; yea they went beyond many of our glorious Profes­sors, who yet think themselves in an high form of Godliness. They belie­ved their Religion firmly, and Prayed frequently and fervently, and Fasted severely; They were exact, and exceed­ing strict in the observation of their Sabbaths, and hated scandalous and gross sins; and were very punctual in all the duties of outward Worship; and in many things supererrogated and went beyond what was commanded: Such zealous people were They; and They separated from the conversations and customs of other Jews, upon the account of their supposed greater Ho­liness and Purity. These were heights to which the Pharisees arrived; and a good Christian must exceed all this: And he that lives in a sober course of Piety and Vertue; of self Government, and humble submission to God; of obedience to his Superiours, and chari­ty to his Neighbours: He doth really [Page 97] exceed it, and shall enter, when the other shall be shut out. So that, when our Saviour saith, that the Pharisa­ick Righteousness must be exceeded, the meaning is not, That a greater degree of every thing the Pharisees did, is necessary; but we must do that which in the nature and kind of it is better, and more acceptable to God, viz. That whereas they placed their Religion in strict Fastings, an nice observations of Festivals; in lowd and earnest Prayers, and zeal to get Proselytes; we should place ours, in sincere subjections of our wills to the will of God; in imitation of the life of Christ, and obedience of his Laws; in amending the faults of our natures and lives: in subduing our Passions, and casting out the habits of evil: These are much beyond the Religi­on of the Phanatick Pharisee; not in shew and pomp; but in real worth, and divine esteem. So that, upon the whole, we have no reason to be dis­couraged, because They that do so [Page 98] much are cast out; since, though we find not those heats, and specious things in our selves which we observe in them, yet if we are more meek and modest, and patient, and charitable, and humble, and just, our case is bet­ter; and we have the Power of God­liness, when theirs is but the Form; And we, whom They accounted Ali­ens and Enemies shall enter; while they, the presumed friends and dome­sticks, shall be shut out.

But (2.) I expect it should be a­gain objected against this severity of Discourse, That our Saviour saith, Mat. 11. 20. That his yoke is easie, and his burden is light: which place seems to cross all that hath been said about the Difficulties of Religion. And 'tis true it hath such an appea­rance, but 'tis no more; For the words look as cross to the expressions of the same Divine Author; concerning the straightness of the Gate, and narrow­ness of the Way, as to any thing I have delivered from those infallible [Page 99] sayings. Therefore to remove the sem­blance of contrariety, which the object­ed Text seems to have to those others, and to my Discourse, we may ob­serve,

That when our Saviour saith, that his yoke is easie, the word we read is [...], which signifieth very good, excellent, gracious; and the meaning I suppose is, That his Precepts had a native beauty and goodness in them; That they are congruous and sutable to our reasonable Natures, and apt instruments to make us happy; In which sense, this expression hath no an­tipathy to the Text, or to any thing I have said. And whereas 'tis ad­ded, [My Burden is light] I think by this, we are to understand, That his Commands are not of that burden­some nature, that the Ceremonies of the Jewish Laws were: Those were ve­ry cumbersome, and had nothing in their nature to make them pleasant and agreeable; whereas his Religion had no expensive, troublesome Rites ap­pendant [Page 100] to it; nor did it require a­ny thing but our observation of those Laws which eternal Reason obligeth us to, and which of our selves we should choose to live under, were we freed from the intanglements of the World, and interests of Flesh. So that neither doth this Objection sig­nifie any thing against the scope of my Discourse.

AND now I descend to the Im­provement of what I have said; and the things I have to add will be comprehended under these two Generals (1.) Inferences, and (2.) plain Advice in order to practise. I begin with the Inferences and Co­rollaries that arise from the whole Discourse. And,

(1.) We may collect, What is the state of Nature; and What the state of Grace. We have seen that 'tis the great business of Religion to overcome evil Inclinations, and the prevailing influence of sense and passion, and evil [Page 101] customs and example and worldly af­fections; And therefore the state of Nature consists in the power and pre­valency of These. This is that the Scripture calls the Old man, Eph. 4.22. The Image of the earthy, 1 Cor. 15. Flesh, Gal. 5. 17. Death, Rom. 7.24. Darkness, Joh. 3. 19. and old leven, 1 Cor 5. 7. On the contrary, The state of Grace is a state of sincere striving against them; which if it keeps on, ends in Victory. And this is call'd Conversion, Acts 3. 19. and Renova­tion, while 'tis in its first motions; And the Divine Nature, 2 Pet. 1. 4. the Image of the Heavenly, 1 Cor. 15. 20. The Spirit, Gal. 5. 16. Light, Ephes. 5. 8. and Life, 1 Joh. 3. 14. when 'tis arriv'd to more compleatness and perfection.

For our fuller understanding this, we may consider, That Grace is ta­ken (1.) for Divine favour; (2.) for Christian Vertue. As it signifies Di­vine favour, so it is used,

(1.) For those helps and aids God [Page 102] affords us, viz. the Gospel, Joh. 1. 17. and the influences of his Spi­rit, 1 Cor. 12. 9. In this sense we are deliver'd from the state of Nature by Baptism, viz. We are intituled to divine helps, which is a kind of rege­neration; for we are born in a condi­tion of importence, and weakness, and destitution of spiritual assistances; This is the world of meer nature; But then in Baptism, we are brought into the world of the Spirit, that is, are put under its influences, and are assured of its aids, and so are morally born again; Not that this Regeneration alone will save us, without our endeavours; it imports only an external relation, and right to priviledges, and by these we may be powerfully assisted in our striving, if we use them.

But then (2.) Grace, as it signifies divine favour, implies his special love and kindness, such as he vouchsases to holy and vertuous men; so that we may observe that there may be a distinction between a state of Grace, [Page 103] and a state of salvation. A state of Grace, in the former sense, is a con­dition assisted by the influences of Gods Spirit, and all baptized persons are in that. But if they use not those helps, they are not in Gods special favour; and so not in a state of Sal­vation. But when those assistances are duly imployed, and join'd with our sincere endeavour, then the person so using them, is in a state of Salva­tion also; and in God's special love and favour. Thus of the state of Grace in the first sense, as taken for divine favour.

(2.) The word is also used for Christian Vertue, 2 Pet. 3. 18. and Vertue is call'd Grace, because 'tis wrought in us by the assistance of Gods Spirit and the light of the Gospel, which are divine favours; and to be in a state of grace in this sense, is to be a virtuous man, which sup­poseth divine aids, and intitles to divine love.

These things I have taken an oc­casion [Page 104] thus briefly to state; because there is oft-times much confusion in mens discourses about Grace and Na­ture, from which much trouble and many controversies have arisen. And by what I have said also in these brief hints, the doctrine of our Church in the office of Baptism, may be un­derstood clearly, and will appear to be very sound and true, notwith­standing the petty exceptions of con­fident Dissenters.

(II.) I may infer, That the great Design of Religion and the Gospel is to perfect humane nature. The per­fection of our natures, consists, in the subjection and subordination of the af­fections and passions to the Mind, as it is enlightned, and directed by the divine Laws, and those of Reason. This is the state of integrity, in which we were first made; and we lost it by the rebellion of our senses and in­feriour powers, which have usurpt the government of us ever since. Here [Page 105] is the imperfection, and corruption of our natures.

Now Religion designs to remove and cure these; and to restore us to our first, and happy state. Its business is not to reform our looks, and our lan­guage; or to model our actions, and gestures into a devout appearance; not only to restrain the practice of open prophaness and villany; nor to comfort us with the assurance of Gods loving us we know not why: But to cure our ill natures, to govern our pas­ssions, to moderate our desires, to throw out pride and envy, and all uncharita­ble surmisals, with the other spiritual sorts of wickedness; and thereby to make us like unto God, in whom there is no shadow of sin, or imperfe­ction; and so to render us fit objects of his delight, and love.

So that whatever doth not tend to the making us, some way or other really better: better in our selves, and better in all Relations, as fathers, and children, and husbands and wives, and [Page 106] subjects, and governours, and neigh­bours, and friends, is not Religion; It may be a form of Godliness, but 'tis no­thing to the life, and power. And where we see not this effect of Religion, let the professor of it be never so high and glorious in his profession, we may yet conclude that either his Religion is not good, or that he only pretends, and re­ally hath it not.

This I take to be a consideration of great moment and great certainty, viz. That Christian Religion aims at the bettering and perfecting of our natures. For the things it commands relate ei­ther to worship or virtue. The in­stances of external worship are prayer, and praise; both which are high acts of gratitude and justice, and they fit us for divine blessings, and keep us un­der a sense of God, and prepare us for union with him, which is the highest perfection of which the creature is ca­pable. Thus the outward acts of worship tend to our happiness; and the inward do infinitely the same.

[Page 107] These are, Faith, and Love, and Fear. Faith in God supports and re­lieves us in all afflictions, and distresses. The love of him is a pleasure and so­lace to us in all losses and disappoint­ments, since he is an object most fil­ling, and satisfying; and one that can­not be lost, except we wilfully thrust him from us. Fear of God hath no torment; 'Tis no slavish dread of his greatness and Power; but a reverence of his perfections, and a lothness to of­fend him; and this disposeth us also for the communications of his grace, and love, Ps. 85.9. And this it doth by congruity, and its own nature; which is to be said likewise of the others. So that they would make those happy that practise them, whether they had been positively enjoyn'd, or not; And though no express rewards had been annext unto them.

There are other two acts of worship which Christianity requires, which are instituted and positive, & respect Christ our Lord; They are, the Sacraments; [Page 108] Baptism, and the Lords Supper; both which are holy Rites of high significa­tion; and seals of an excellent Cove­nant between God and us, assuring us of pardon of sins, and all divine fa­vours, upon the conditions of our Faith. and repentance; and more firm­ly obliging us to holy obedience, and dependence; The only way in which we can be happy. Whence we see briefly, that all the parts of worship which Christianity binds upon us, tend to our perfection and Felicity.

And all the vertues that it commands do the same; both those that respect us in a personal capacity, and those others that relate to us as members of Societies. Thus humility, recommended Mat. 5. 3. Meekness blest, ver. 5. purity, ver 8. are vertues that accomplish our particular persons, and make us happy in our selves. For of Pride cometh Con­teution, Prov. 13. 10. And a great part of our troubles arise from stomach and self-will; which humility cures. Meekness also takes away the occasion [Page 109] of the numerous mischiefs we run in­to through the rage and disorder of our passions; and 'tis in it selfe a great beauty and ornament, since it ariseth from the due order, and goverment of our faculties. Purity which compre­hends temperance of all sorts, frees us from the tormenting importunity of those desires that drag us out of our selves, and expose us to sin, and folly, and temptation, and make us exceed­ing miserable; besides which it is a perfection that renders us like unto God, and the blest Spirits of the high­est rank. And Christian vertues do not only accomplish, and make us happy in our particular persons, but they do the same in our publique capaci­ties, the more publick capacity also; They dispose us to a quiet obedi­ence to our governours without mur­muring, and complaining; and there­by the publique peace is secured; and all good things else in that.

But there are other vertues that Christianity enjoyns, which have a [Page 110] more direct tendency to the happiness of others, as Justice, Mat 7. 12. Cha­rity, 1 Cor. 13. Loyalty. Rom. 13. and all other publique vertues may, I think, be comprehended under these. Where there is no Justice, every man preys upon another, and no mans pro­perty is safe, Where Charity is want­ing, Jealousies, hatreds, envying, back-bitings, and cruelties abound, which render the world deplorably unhappy. Where there is not Loyalty and conscionable submission to Gover­nours, the publick is upon every oc­casion of commotion, involv'd in infinite miseries, and disasters. So that all the precepts of our Religion are in their own nature proper instru­ments to make us happy; and they had been methods of Felicity to be cho­sen by all reasonable creatures, though they had never been required by so great, and so sacred an Authority.

These things I have said, because I could not choose but take this occasi­on to recommend the excellency, and [Page 111] reasonableness of our Religion; And I have done it but only in brief hints, because it ariseth but upon a Corollary from my main subject, and from this I infer further.

(III.) That Christanity is the height, and perfection of morality. They both tend to the real bettering, and accom­plishment of humane nature: But the rules and measures of moral Philosophy were weak and imperfect till Christ Jesus came; He confirmed and enforced all those precepts of vertue, that were written upon our hearts; and cleared them from many corruptions that were grown upon them, through ignorance and vice, the glosses of the Jews, and false conceits of the Gentiles; and he inforced them anew by his Authority and the knowledge he gave of divine aids, and greater rewards, and punish­ments, than were understood before; yea he enlarged them in some instan­ces; such as, loving enemies and forgiv­ing injuries. Thus Christ Jesus taught [Page 112] morality, viz. the way of living like men; And the 5. Chapture of Mathew is an excellent Lecture of this kind.

So that to disparage morality, is to disgrace Christianity it self; and to vi­lifie one of the ends of Christs coming into the world. For all Religion and all duties respect either God, our neigh­bour, or our selves; & the duties that re­late to these two last, are acknowledg'd moral vertues. The Apostle St. James counted these Moralities of visiting the Widow and Fatherless, to be the pure Religion and undefiled. Jam. 1. 17. And the prophet Micah intimates, that those moral vertues of Justice and mercy were some of the main things that God required of us Micah 6. 8. Our Saviour saith that the whole Law is summ'd up in these two, to love God with all our souls, and our neighbour as our selves, Math. 22. 13 which latter contains the duties of morality. And that which the grace of God in the Gospel teacheth, according to St. Paul is, to live soberly, righteous­ly, [Page 113] and godly in this present world, Tit. 2. 11, There is no godliness without morality. All the fruits of the Spirit reckon'd up Gal. 5. 22. are moral ver­tues. And when we are commanded to grow in grace, 2 Pet, 3. 18. vertue is partly understood. For one branch of what is call'd Grace in us, is moral vertue, produced by divine aids, Chri­stian principles, and incouragements; though 'tis true, the word is extended to those duties that relate immediate­ly to God also.

By which we see how ignorantly, and dangerously those people talk, that disparage morality as a dull, lame thing of no account, or reckoning. Upon this the Religion of the second Table is by too many neglected; and the whole mystery of the new Godliness is lay'd in frequent hearing, and de­vout seraphick talk, luscious phancies, new lights, incomes, manifestations, seal­ings, in-dwellings, and such like. Thus Antinomianism, and all kinds of Phana­ticism have made their way by the [Page 114] disparagement of morality, and men have learnt to believe themselves the chosen, pretious people, while their hearts have been full of malice, and bitterness, and their hands of violence, while they despised dominions, and spake evil of dignities, rebel'd against the Government, destroyed publique peace, and endeavoured to bring all into mi­sery and confusions. 'Tis this diaboli­cal project of dividing morality from Religion that hath given rise and oc­casion to all these villanies. And while the Practisers of such things have assumed the name of the only Godly, Godlyness it self hath been brought into disgrace by them; and Atheism incouraged to shew it self, in open defiance to Religion, Yea, through the indiscretions, and inconsiderateness of some preachers, the phantastry, and vain babble of others, and the gene­ral disposition of the people to admire what makes a great shew, and pretends to more than ordinary spirituality; things are, in many places, come to [Page 115] that pass, that those who teach Christian vertue & Religion, in plainness and sim­plicity without sensless phrases, and fanyastick affectations, shall be reckon'd for dry moralists, and such as under­stand nothing of the life, and power of Godliness. Yea, those people have been so long used to gibberish and canting, that they cannot understand plain sense; and vertue is become such a stranger to their ears, that when they hear: it spoken of in a pulpit they count the preacher a broacher of new divinity; and one that would teach the way to heaven by Philosophy: And he escapes well, if they do not say, That he is an Atheist; or that he would reconcile us to Gentilism, and Heathen Worship. The danger and va­nity of which ignorant humour, the contempt of morality, is apparent in the whole scope of my Discourse, and therefore I add no more concerning it here; but proceed to another Infer­ence, which is.

[Page 116] (IV.) That Grace and the new nature, make their way by degrees on the Soul; for the difficulties will not be removed nor the corrupt nature fubdued all at once. Habits that grow by repeated acts, time, and continuance, will not be expelled in a moment. No man can become greatly evil or good, on a sud­den. The Path of the just shines more and more to to a perfect day, Prov. 4. 18, We do not jump from darkness into full light, We are not fully sanctified and converted in an instant. The day begins in an insensible dawn, and the Kingdom of heaven is like a grain of Mustard seed, Mat. 13. 31. It doth not start up presently to the stature of a tree. The Divine birth begins like the Natural, in an imperfect embryo.

There are some seeds of Knowledge and Goodness that God hath sown in our natures; these are excited by the Divine Grace and Spirit to convicti­ons, which proceed to purposes; these to resolutions, and thence we pass to abstinence from all gross sins, and the [Page 117] performance of outward Duties; and so at last by degrces, to vigorous attempts, for the destruction of evil habits and in­clinations. When Grace is arrived to this eminent growth, 'tis very visible, as the Plant is when 'tis above the ground. But the beginnings of Conver­sion are not ordinarily perceived.

So that to catechize men about the punctual time, and circumstances of their Conversion, is an idle device, and a great temptation to vanity and lying. Who can tell the exact moment when the night ends, and the dawn enters? 'Tis true indeed, the pas­sage from the excesses of Wickedness, which begins in some extraordinary horrors and convictions, is sometimes very notable; but 'tis not so in all, or most. The time of St. Paul's conver­sion was eminent, but that change was from great contrarieties and mira­culous, and therefore 'tis not to be drawn into instance. Both the be­ginnings and minute progressions of Grace, are usually undiscerned: We [Page 118] cannot see the Grass just putting out of the earth; or actually growing; but yet we find that it doth both. And Grace is better known in its fruits, than in its rise. By their Fruits ye shall know them, saith our Saviour, Mat. 12. 33. and the same way we may know our selves.

(V.) We see that there is an Ani­mal, as well as a Divine Religion: A Religion that is but the effect and mo­dification of complexion, natural fear and self-love. How far these will go, we have seen, and how short it will prove in the end. The not noting this hath been the sad occasion of de­ceiving many. Some observing great beats of zeal and devotion in the modern Pharisees, take these to be the Saints and good people; believing all the glo­rious things which they assume to themselves: When others, that know them to be envious and malitious, un­just, and covetous, proud and ungoverna­ble, and cannot therefore look on them [Page 119] as such choice holy people, are apt to affirm all to be hypocrisie and feigning. In which sentences, both are mistaken for want of knowing that there is a meer Animal Religion, that will pro­duce very specious and glorious effects; So that though the Pharisee Prays ve­hemently, and Fasts severely, and talks much of the love of God, and delights greatly in hearing, and pious. Discourse, and will suffer all things for what he calls his Conscience; yet he is not to be concluded a Saint from hence, because the meer Animal Religi­on may put it self forth in all these ex­pressions.

And though this Professor be a bad man, proud and covetous, malicious and censorious, Sacrilegious and Rebel­lious, yet we cannot thence be assu­red that he is an Hypocrite, in one sense, viz. such an one as feigns all that he pretends: But we may believe that he is really so affected with Hearing and Praying, and devout Com­pany, as he makes shew, and yet for [Page 120] all this, not alter our opinion of his being an evil man: since the Animal Religion will go as far as the things in which he glories.

There is nothing whereby the com­mon people are drawn more easily into the wayes of Sects and Separati­ons, than by the observation of the zeal and devotion of those of the fa­ctions: These they take to be Religi­on, and the great matters of Godli­ness, and those the religious and only godly people. And so first they con­ceive a great opinion of them, and then follow them whithersoever they lead. For the generality of men are tempted into Schism and Parties, not so much by the arguments of dissent­ers, as by the opinion of their Godli­ness, which opinion is grounded up­on things which may arise from the meer Animal Religion, and very com­monly do so. This they understand not, and by this ignorance are betray­ed into the snare of Separation, to the disturbance of the Peace of the Church, [Page 121] and their own great hurt and inconve­nience. Whereas could they be made to know and consider, that complexi­on and natural passions may bring forth all these fruits, they might be secured by this means against the tempting imposture; and learn that Meekness and Patience, Affability and Charity, Justice, and a Peaceable, hum­ble temper, are better arguments of Saintship than all these. Thus a great mischief might be prevented; and there is another that might be reme­died by the same Observation: The inconvenience is this,

While the enemies of Factions ob­ject Hypocrisie to them, affirming that all they do and say, is meer personating and pretence; they confirm and settle those people in their way; for many of them know, that they are in earnest, and consequently, that their opposers are mistaken in their judgments con­cerning them; by which they are better establisht in their own good opinion, and hardned against convi­ction [Page 122] whereas, did they consider such things as I have suggested, about the Animal Religion, and grant to them that they may be serious, believe themselves infinitely, and feel all those Warmths, which they pretend, and yet be evil men, and far enough from being Godly; Did they shew them, that all their zeal and Devotion, and more and greater than theirs, may arife from a principle that hath nothing Divine and supernatural in it: They would thereby strike them in the right vein, and bring them down from the high perch, whereon, by their false marks, they had placed themselves; and thereby disabuse them, and prevent the abuse of others.

(VI.) We see how we may know our state, whether it be that of Grace and Life; or the other sad one of Vnregene­racy and Death. The state of Grace is a motion towards the recovery of the Di­vine Image, and a perfect victory over our selves, and all corrupt inclinations [Page 123] and affections, The state of Vnregene­racy and Death, is the continuance un­der the power and prevalency of sense, passion, and evil habits. Now when 'tis question'd by our selves in which of these states we are; it must be sup­posed that we are arrived at something of Religion: For the grosly wicked cannot but know what their conditi­on is. And the way I would propose to those others, who are yet uncertain, is this, viz. To take notice,

Whether they really design, and make any progress in Goodness. Every motion indeed cannot be felt or perceived; but if we go on, though never so insen­sibly, time will shew that we are grown. If we consider what are our particular defects, and studiously ap­ply proper instruments to remove them: if we find success in those in­deavours, and that we are better this year than we were the former; That our Passions are better governed, and our inordinate affections more restrain­ed, and our evil habits and inclinati­ons [Page 124] less powerful with us, 'tis an in­fallible sign, that we live and are in a state of Grace; that we shall at last arrive to a perfect man in Christ Jesus, Eph. 4. 13. and shall [...]attain if we faint not, 2 Cor. 4. 1. whereas on the other hand, if we come to some hopeful pitch, and stand still there; if sin and temptation be as powerful with us now, as they were a year ago, and our inclinations and passions just at the same pass; we are in a bad state, and dead. While the Plant grows, it lives, and may become a great tree, though at present it be but small: whereas that whose stature is bigger, and more promising, if it proceeds not, decayes and comes to nothing.

Though we are imperfect, if we are striving and going towards perfe­ction, God overlooks our. Infirmities, and pardons them for Christ's sake. This is our sincerity, and an effect of true Faith. But if on the other hand, we think our selves well, and do not always attempt forwards, our state is [Page 125] bad, and our sins will be imputed: Be our pretences what they will, our Faith is not sincere, and will not stead us.

When we get to a certain pitch in Religion, and make that our state, 'tis an argument that our Religion was meerly Animal; and but a mode of complexion, self-love, and natural fear. When we overcome some sins, and are willing to spare and cherish others, 'tis a sign that we are not sincere in our attempts upon any, and that what we have done, was not performed upon good and divine motives.

Sincerty is discovered by growth, and this is the surest mark that I know of Tryal, So that we have no reason to presume, though, as we think, we have gone a great way, if we go not on. Nor on the other side, have we any to dispair, though our present attain­ments are but small, if we are proceed­ing. The buds and tenderest blossoms of Divine Grace, are acceptable to God; when the fairest leaves of the [Page 126] meer Animal Religion are nothing in his esteem.

This is a great advantage we have from the Gospel, that imperfection will be accepted, where there is sincerity; whereas according to the measures of exact and rigorous Justice, no man could be made happy in the high de­gree of glory, but he that was perfect, and whose victories were absolute.

(VII.) It may be collected from our Discourse, Wherein the Power of Godliness consists, viz. In a progress to­wards perfection, and an intire victory over all the evils of our Natures. The Forms of Godliness are not only in the ceremonies of Worship, and exter­nal actions of feigned Piety; But all the fine things of the Animal Religion are of this kind; and they are the worst sort: By the grosser Forms men hardly deceive others; by these they effectually gull themselves. So that many that vehemently oppose Forms, are the greatest Formalists. Forms [Page 127] of Worship may well agree with the Power of Godliness; whenas zeal a­gainst Forms, may be a Form it self; whatever makes shew of Religion, and doth not make us better, that's a Form, at least to us. There are Spi­ritual Forms, as well as those of the other sort, and these are most deadly. Poyson is worst in Aqua Vitae. He that speaks his Prayers ex tempore with vehemence and lowdness, if he strive not against his ill nature and self-will, is as much a Formalist, as he that tells his Prayers by his Beads, and understands not one word he saith. And those that run away from Forms in Churches, meet more dangerous ones in Barns and private corners. Orthodox Opinions, devout Phrases, set Looks, melting Tones, af­fected Sighs, and vehement Raptures, are often meer Forms of Godliness, that proceed from the Animal Religion, which it self is a Form likewise. O that the observers of so many motes in their Brethrens eyes, would learn [Page 128] to throw out the Beames of their own!

The Form of Godliness that pre­tends it self to be no more, is not so hurtful: But the Formes, that call themselves the Power, are deadly. 'Tis the Formality and Superstition of Sepa­ratists that keeps on the Separation: They contend for phancies and arbitrary trifles; We for order and obedience. The people are abused by names, and being frighted by the shadows of Su­perstition and Formality, they run into the worst Formality, and silliest Super­stition in the World. The Kingdom of Heaven consists not in meats and drinks, Rom. 14. 17. neither in Circumcision, nor Vncircumcision, 1 Cor. 7. 19. not in zeal for little things, nor in zeal against them; both the one and the other are equally formal.

The power of Religion lies in using Divine aids heartily and constantly, in order to the overcoming the Difficul­ties of our way. This Godliness is not exercised so much in reforming [Page 129] others, as our selves: The chief design is to govern within, and not to make Laws for the World without us, This is that Wisdom that is from above, which is pure and peaceable. Jam. 3. 17. It makes no noise and bluster abroad, but quietly minds its own business at home.

So that certainly the best men have not always had the greatest fame for Godliness; as the wisest have very seldom been the most popu­lar. They are the effects of the A­nimal Religion that make the biggest fhew. The voice of true Religion is heard in quiet, it sounds not in the corners of the street. The power of Godliness is seen in Justice, Meek­ness Humility, and Charity, things that look not so splendidly as the Spiritual Forms.

And thus of the Inferences and Co­rollaries that may be drawn from my Discourse, which though they cannot all be inferred from any of its minute and seperated parts, yet they lie in [Page 130] the design and contexture of the whole.

I Come now to the Advice for Pra­ctice. The way of Happiness is dif­ficult, but the difficulties may be over­come by striving. A little will not do; many seekers are shut out; what remains then, but that we perswade our selves to strive, and that diligently; with con­stant resolution and endeavour?

We were made for Happiness, and Happiness all the World seeks: Who will shew us any good? Psal. 4. 6. is the voice of all the Creatures. We have sought it long in emptiness, and shadows; and that search hath still ended in shame and disappointment. Where true substantial Felicity is we know, and the Way we know, Joh. 14. 4. It is not hid from us in Clouds and thick Darkness; or if it were, 'twere worth our pains to search after it. It is not at so great a distance, but it may be seen, yea, it may be brought so neer as to be felt. Though [Page 131] the way is streight, yet 'tis certain; or if it were otherwise, who would not venture his pains upon the possibility of such an issue? Many Difficulties are in it; but our Encouragements and Assistances are infinite. The love of God, and the gift of his son; the blood of Christ, and his intercession; the aids of the Spirit, and the directions of the Gospel; the Invitations and Promises, the rare Precepts, and incomparable Examples of those holy men that have gone before us: These are mighty helpes and great motives to assist us in striving, and to quicken us to it.

Let us then arise in the strength of Faith, and in the encouragement of those aids, and attempt with cou­rage upon the Difficulties of our way. Let us ingage our deepest Resolutions, and most diligent endeavours. Here is no need to deliberate, the things are necessary, the benefits unspeakable, and the event will be glorious. It is no Question, I hope, whether God, or the Creature is to be first chosen; whe­ther [Page 132] Heaven or Hell be better? and therefore there is no cause that we should stay and consider; we cannot be rash here, we cannot hurt our selves by a too sudden ingagement; we have delayed too long already, and every moment we sit still, is one lost to our Duty, and our Happiness. Let us resolve then, and begin with cou­rage, and proceed with diligence, 'tis our End and Felicity for which we are to strive; and every thing is a­ctive for its End and Perfection.

All Creatures are diligent in serving the Designs of Providence; the Heavens are in restless motion, and the Clouds are still carrying about their fruitful Waters; the sluggish Earth it self is always putting forth in variety of Trees, and Grass, and Flowers; the Rivers run towards the Sea, the Brooks move towards them, and the Sea within it self. Thus all things even in inanimate Nature may mind us of acting towards our end. And if we look a little higher, the [Page 133] Beasts of the Field, the Fowls, and Cattel, and creeping things are dili­gent in striving after the good and perfection of their Natures, and Solo­mon sends the Sluggard to those lit­tle Insects, the Ant and Bee, to teach him activity and diligence, Prov. 6.6. And shall the Beasts act more reasona­bly than the professed Sons of Rea­son? May it not shame us, that we need Instruction from the Creatures that have no understanding? With what face can we carry our heads so high, and look down with contempt upon inferiour Animals, when they live more wisely and more regularly than we?

The Sum is, All things are inces­santly moving towards an End; and Happiness is ours, which therefore should ingage our most careful Thoughts, and most active Endea­vours

We are sollicitous and diligent about things of infinitely less mo­ment, and in effect of none, viz. un­certain [Page 134] Riches, sensual Pleasures, and worldly Honours; though the way to these is sufficiently difficult and unea­sie, yet we are not discouraged; we attempt all those Difficulties with an obstinate Courage, though without promise of any equal assistance, or as­surance of success. We are often de­feated in our pursuits, and yet we go on. We are overmaster'd by cross events, and yet we try again. We miss our happiness, when we have attain'd our end, and yet we are as active in court­ing disappointment another time; ei­ther we attain not the things we seek, or find no true satisfaction in them, or they die in our hands presently, and yet we strive. And doth not this ac­tivity about uncertain, unsatisfying Tri­fles, shamefully reprove our Negli­gence in reference to our great End, Happiness and Perfection? In striving for which we have all the powers of Heaven to aid us, and the Word of God, and the Blood of his Son, and the experience of all that ever try'd, to [Page 135] assure us that we shall neither fail of the things we seek, nor of the pleasure that we expect from them. And why then do we lazily sit down, and with the Sluggard say, There is a Lion in the way, while we despise greater dis­couragements, when vain things are to be sought? The Merchant doth not give off, because there are Storms, and the numerous Dangers of the Deep to be met with in his way to the Indies; nor the Souldier lay by his Arms, because of the hazards and toils of War. And do we act courage­ously for petty purchases; and faint and despond when we are to strive for Crowns and eternal Glories?

'Tis true indeed our own natural strength is small, in proportion to the Difficulties we are to encounter; but the Grace of God is sufficient for us, 2 Cor. 12.9. and we may do all things through Christ that strengthens us, Phil. 4. 13. Nature is weak, and im­perfect, but we are not left in the con­dition of meer nature: For we are not [Page 136] under the Law but under Grace, Rom. 6. 14. We are under the influences of the holy Spirit, which will remove the mountains, and plain the way before us, if we take care to engage those aids by Faith and sincere endeav­our.

For this we may be sure of, that God will never be wanting to us, if we are not so unto our selves, So that the case as to our natural inability, and the assistance of Gods Spirit, seems to be thus. A man in a Boat is cartied from the Harbour he designs, by the violence of the Current; he is not able only by playing the Oar, to over­come the resistance of the Tide; but a gen tle Gale blows with him, which will not of it self carry him up against the Torrent: Neither of them will do it single: But if he hoist the sail, and use the Oar too, this united force prevails; and he gets happily to the Harbour, This methinks resem­bles our Condition; we are carried down the Torrent of evil inclinations [Page 137] and Affections, our own unaided pow­ers are too little for that great force: but the Holy Spirit is with us, It breaths upon us, and is ready to assist, if we are so to use it, and by the superaddition and ingagement of those blessed Aids, there is no evil in our natures but may be overcome. So that we have no reason to be dis­couraged at the apprehension of our impotence, out of weakness we shall he made strong Heb. 11. 24. If we im­ploy our Talent, though it be but a very small one, we shall have more, Mat. 25. 29. And if we accept of those divine helps, and use them, what was before, to meer natural consideration, uneasie, will be plea­sant and sweetly relishing.

One of the greatest Difficulties in the way of Religion, is to begin: the first steps are roughest to those feet that have been unaccustomed to it. The helps and manifold incou­ragements we shall meet with in the Progress, will render it more agree­able [Page 138] and delightsome. Those very toils will be grateful; there is scarce any great sense of pleasure, but where there is some Difficulty and Pain. Even our Work it self will be Wages. And 'tis not only the End of Wis­dom that is pleasantness, but the very way, Prov. 3. 17. So that though we are call'd upon to strive, and to run, and to fight, (which words im­port Labour) yet we are not required to Quit our pleasures, but to change the objects of them; to leave the de­lights of Swine for those of Angels; sen­sual for spiritual Satisfactions.

Thus all things encourage, and invite us to strive; God calls upon us, and our own Interests call; Christ Jesus came to ingage us to this Work, and the Holy Spirit waits to assist it. If notwithstanding all this, we sit still, our Negligence will be inexcusable and fatal: or if we arise and go a little forward, and then lay us down to take our ease and rest, our state (in the judgment [Page 399] of one that knew) will be worse, more desperate, and excuseless, 2. Pet. 2. 21.

I Conclude all then, in the words of the Blessed Apostle, 1. Cor. 15. There­fore my beloved Brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord: To him be Glory and Honour henceforth, and for ever. Amen.