The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, Chapter 5

The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety · Chapter 5

p. 60CHAP. V. A survey of the Mischiefs arising from Carnal Consideration.

AFTER the disadvantages of partial Consideration, may fairly be subjoyn'd the ills of that advertency, which is impregnated by sensuality and sloth, and makes pretence unto right reason, but tends indeed as much as any thing to the frustrating the design, and enfeebling p. 61the force of our Religion: such close reserves of deceit and malice have men to their own Souls, that when they quit one strong hold of Satans, 'tis only to retreat to another. When they are not so brisk and Aerial, as lightly to skip over those precepts, that lye in their way: they are so gross and unwary as to fall at them; if they may not pass for Straws and Chaffe, such as every blast of vain confidence may blow away, they shall then be improved into Heaps and Mountains, become stones of stumbling and rocks of offence; and when they are call'd upon to Consider them, they do it in so perverse a manner, as if they meant to revenge themselves on that unwelcome importunity: their consideration is worse than neglect. They look into them insiduously, not as Disciples, but as Spies, not to weigh the obligeingness, but to quarrel the unreasonableness or difficulty of the injunctions, not to direct their practice, but excuse their prevarications.

FROM this unsincere kind of inspection it is, that the Precepts have got so formidable appearance with many, that they have fallen under such heavy prejudices, as to resolve them intolerable yokes, insuperable tasks: that this Canaan is a land that eats up its inhabitants, wherein there is so little of enjoyment that it scarce affords a being. Men count a life under such restraints, so joyless and uneasie, that it differs from death only, by being more passive. They think Zeal like a Hectick Feaver, in a slow but certainly fatal Fire exhausts and consumes the Spirits. Mortification p. 62and self-denial macerate and decay the body; and liberality dissipates and wastes the estate: and with these Apparitions which themselves have conjur'd up; men run frighted from duty, resolve the burden is unsupportable, or at least grievous to be born, and therefore, as our Saviour says of the Pharisees, will not touch it, no not so much as with one of their fingers, Mat. 23. 4. never make any attempt to try what indeed they are; but take their measures from their own, or perhaps other mens prejudicate opinions, and thence take out an Authentick Record and Patent for sloth, fancy the journey too long for them, and therefore sit still; first call Christs commandments grievous, and then improve that slander into a manumission; absolve themselves from obeying them. And unless they may have the Gate to life cut wider, made capacious enough to receive them with all their lusts about them, will never essay to enter it.

BUT if the Prince of darkness have enacted it a Law, that difficulty shall pass for excuse, yet if real uneasiness may be admitted to be as deterring as imaginary ones, his own decree will retort the most ruinously on himself, and men may plead it as their discharge, from all those base drudgeries, those tyrannous impositions wherewith he loads them. The Drunkard may experimentally tell him, the pain of an aking head, of an overcharged stomack, the ruine of a wasted Estate, and claim a dispensation from pursuing that uneasie and costly sin. The Wanton may p. 63bring his macerated body like the Levites Concubine Iud, and urge it as an evidence how cruel a Master he serves; and from thence emancipate and free himself: and indeed every sin carries in it so much of visible toil, or secret smart, as would by force of this rule supplant and undermine its self; and sure Satan would never have arm'd men with so dangerous a weapon, had he not discern'd them so in love with slavery, as secures him it should never be us'd against him; for if it should, nothing could give him a more mortal wound, more irrecoverably shake his Kingdom. Nor would only that infernal Region feel the force of that destructive principle; it would make as strange confusions in secular Regiments.

FOR if such pleas as these may be admitted, they will easily cancel all Humane, as well as Divine Laws, and every malefactor will transfer his guilt on the severity of the Legislator: the Thief may say it is too great a difficulty for him to resist the temptation of an apt opportunity; a rich prize that his fingers are too slippery even for himself, and he cannot restrain them, and then quarrel the strictness of the Law, which has rais'd so high a fence about mens properties, that he who climbs it must endanger his neck. The Rebel may complain that the bands of Allegiance are too strait, the yoke sits too close, galls and frets his tender flesh, exclaim loudly at the Tyranny of those that laid it on, and in that out-cry drown the noise of his own Treason. And so every other transgressor may accuse the rule, as accessary p. 64to his swervings, till at last the Laws be made the only Criminals.

I leave every man to judge both of the equity and consequencies of such discoursings in Civil matters, and shall only desire he will apply them to Spiritual also, where certainly they are neither more just, nor less ruinous; and whilest such absurd pretences as these pass currant, no wonder if Christianity languish and grow impotent, want strength to impress its self on the lives of its professors. The most infallible receipt can work no cure on him, who upon the suspicion of its bitterness, refuses to taste it. The most excellent Laws must look their regulating power, where the execution of them is obstructed; and we may as reasonably look for the efficacy of Christianity among those who never heard the name, as among those, who owning the name, do yet disclaim its precepts; and so all those interpretatively do, who by accusing them of too great rigour, avert both themselves and others from their Obedience.

THAT the Charge is scandalously unjust will appear to any, who shall allow themselves the just means of information; but alas the way of Process men take in this affair is so inequitable, as certainly presages the partiality of the sentence, what Person ever was there so innocent, so excellent, who if arraign'd at the Tribunal of his mortal enemy could be acquitted, Christ himself shall be pronounc'd a Blasphemer, when a Caiphas is to examine him: and no wonder if his precepts find p. 65proportionable dealing, if they be decried as impossible, tyrannical, perhaps ridiculous too, where the scanning of them is referr'd to those, whose interest it is to defame them. Men enthrone their lusts, set them up in the judgement seat, and none can expect they shall pass such a sentence, as shall include their own condemnation: if they own the Commandment to be holy, just and good, they must tacitely accuse themselves to be impure, unjust and wicked, and as such to be consign'd to wrath and judgment.

HERE then we have the true account how Christs commands, which are in themselves so far from grievous, have gotten so unkind a reputation among us; this is so direct a course for it, that we may cease our wonder, though not our grief to see it, for we behold them stand to the award of those with whom they have a profest enmity: the Goal gives sentence on the Bench; the Bar arraigns the Judgment Seat. Certainly when that Law which is Spiritual is submitted to the arbitriment of gross carnality, the Law of liberty is taxed and rated by those worst bondmen who are sold under sin; 'tis impossible to find any fairer treatment. That which comes on purpose to dethrone sin, dispossess it of the Empire it has usurpt, will certainly be entertain'd with the same exclamation the Devils us'd to Christ, Why art thou come to torment us? But as if this general Antipathy were not enough to ascertain the rejection of Christs command; as if the National feud, as I may call it, between Heaven and Hell were not thought p. 66irreconcilable enough, men offer yet harder measure, call in the aid of personal quarrels, and when the precepts come to be consider'd, refer each of them single to that particular Vice to which it has the directest contrariety.

THUS when Christs command of meekness and forgiveness, of loving enemies, and turning the cheek, bearing the Cross, or self-denial calls for audience; they consult (as Rehoboam did with his young hot-spurs) with their anger and malice, their rankor and revenge, and they soon give their Verdict; that to be meek is to be servile, a temper fit only for the abject. That to forgive enemies is a principle of cowardize that would Emasculate the world; to love them a piece of Spaniel-like fawning; but to turn the Cheek; not only to hazard, but invite new injuries by owning them as benefits, paying blessing for curses, kindness and good-turns for hatred, is such a ridiculous patience, as must expose to the insolence of many, and the scorn and derision of all men. And then the resolution is ready they will be no such fools for Christs sake. So when the precept of humility and lowliness comes to be consider'd, their Pride is deputed to hear its plea, and then though it bring the authority of Christs example as well as his command, it will be judg'd invalid: Christ indeed took upon him the form of a Servant, and to that humility was a proportionable Adjunct; but what is that to them whose aspiring humour abhors subjection, 'tis not calculated for their Meridian, they are of another manner p. 67of Spirit, and would not have it embased by the admission of so mean a quantity: and though Christ have put poverty of Spirit among his Beatitudes, they resolve he shall not ensnare them with that artifice, they will not take his measures of felicity; or resign that pleasure they have in valuing themselves, for any thing he proposes in exchange. In like manner the precepts of temperance, sobriety and chastity, are not permitted to the judgment of sober reason, nay, nor of meer natural desire; but to appetites vitiated and inflam'd, by radicated habits; and then the Glutton thinks to eat moderately, is to be starv'd; and will as soon put a knife, Prov. 23. to his throat, in the vulgar sense of cutting it, as in Solomons notion of restraining his excess. Thus the Drunkard with his false thirsts looks on sobriety as a kind of Hell, where he shall want a drop to cool his tongue, and thinks the abandoning his debaucht jollities is an implicite adieu to all the comforts of life. The Unclean person when his blood is high scoffs at Chastity as a religious kind of impotence, and only so far considers the precept of pulling out the Eye, as to infer that it were as easie literally to part with it, as to restrain its lustful range: not look at all, as not look to lust. And proportionably it fares with Charity and bounty, which though our Saviour recommend, Mammon arraigns of robbery, and stigmatizes as a Thief that picks the Purse, and riffles Coffers. But amidst all these the taking up the Cross, suffering for righteousness sake, and the doctrine of self-denial, p. 68fall under the heaviest prejudice. These are oppos'd not by some one single vice, but the confederate arms of all; even those whose interests are flatly opposite do here unite: Herod and Pilate, Saduces and Pharisees accord against Christ, and all are freely suffer'd, nay invited to exhibit their complaints against these Mandates. Covetousness cries out that this is the most ruinous prodigality, casts away an estate in a lump, and lays all open to forfeiture and confiscation: and Prodigality takes it as ill to be forestall'd, and have nothing left for it to dissipate. Prophaness avows a contempt of it as a folly, and most open madness to part with real pleasure for an empty name, or profit for that Bankrupt thing call'd Conscience: and Hypocrisie has a more secret hatred of it, as its detector; that which will bring it to a Test which it cannot pass. Malice puts in a Caveat, that this is to gratifie enemies, and lose the satisfactions of revenge: and Self-Love puts in another, that it is to destroy ones self. In short, every limb of the body of sin discharges a blow at this innocent and Divine Sanction; as if they meant it should exemplifie its own doctrine by assuming that passive temper it recommends.

BUT alas, who can expect any more upright verdicts from such pact, such corrupt Juries, and why may not Christ be permitted to claim the common benefit of our Laws, to make his challenge and exceptions against this so incompetent impanel. 'Tis the counsel of the Wise man, not p. 69to advise in common affairs with those whose tempers may be suppos'd to biass them, consult not, saies he, with a coward in matters of war, nor with a sluggard of much business, Eccl. 37. 11. and sure if they be ill Counsellors, they must be worse Iudges: but why then do we set pride to judge of humility, lust of purity, covetousness of liberality: and make our vices the arbitrators of those Laws which should restrain them? This is such a gross injustice as common humanity abhors; we deal by other measures with men, the most notorious and flagitious criminals: and reserve this way of process for those things only wherein our God may be concern'd. 'Tis a severe exprobration of a prophane people, Malach. 1. 8. Where God accuses them for treating him with less reverence than they would do a mortal Prince. Offer it now to thy Prince: but alass we shall force him to descend far lower in his expostulation, so far we are from paying him the duty and regard belonging to a Prince, that we yield him not the rights of common men: force him to stand to those measures which we think too unequitable to press upon a murderer, a thief, or rebel at the Bar.

BUT this waving of common rules is a plain confession that we need more indulgence, than those will allow: when mens lusts thus usurp the Tribunal and judge in their own cause, 'tis a palpable discovery they dare not remit themselves to any more equal determination. And indeed in this point of their interest, they pass a p. 70right judgment: for 'tis certain were the case referr'd to any competent Judge, indeed to any but themselves they would inevitably be cast; and sure 'tis high time that some should assist opprest vertue in its appeal; find it out some Court of equity where its plea may be heard: and we need not travel far for that purpose, every man may do it in his own breast, where in his little Common-wealth he shall find a Court of Gods erecting: let him but draw the Cause thither, discuss the matter in his own conscience; and he will soon find the former unrighteous sentences revers'd: let him but seriously reflect on his violations of those sacred Precepts of Christ; and observe what a sting and secret remorse every such breach leaves within him: and that will be a competent attestation of the equity and obligingness of those Mandates: for from whence else can the regret arise? those things that are either impossible in their nature, or unconcerning to us cannot beget it. No man accuses himself for not flying in the air, or walking upon the water: nor owns himself guilty in the non-observance of any Laws, but such as have power to oblige him: and therefore these close pangs and checks of Conscience are an irrefragable evidence, that men do inwardly assent to the justice and authority of those divine rules; which their actions, yea often their words too, do most oppugn.

BUT over and above the throws and afterpains of conscience, when sin is brought forth, the self-accusation of the Criminal, when none beside p. 71controuls, nay many flatter and commend: I say beyond this secondary and reflext Apology, for Christs Law, owed to the foregoing prevarication of it; there is an early and immediate verdict past in its behalf, in the esteem and liking which those documents command, where ere they pass: creating an assent and veneration not only when obey'd, but from profest despisers; who cannot chuse to think well of that vertue they desert, and the necessity of their affairs compel them to speak ill of. An event visible in the condemnation of our Saviour, where the Iudge who gave Sentence against him, at the same moment washt his hands, and openly profest he found no fault in him.

AND indeed this very reflexion on the Author of these precepts, if well consider'd would supersede all other arguments. The Mandates of the Gospel on this one score, that they are Christs, are certainly both pure in themselves, and possible to us: and so most worthy not only of all Obedience, but all Love too. He who is our Lord upon both the titles of Creation and Redemption, may certainly with all justice impose what laws he pleases on us. Yet he, who laid down his life for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first Testament, cannot be imagin'd so inconsiderate of our frailty which himself had smarted for, as to introduce another of equal rigor, or be so prodigal of his bloud, as to pour it out for those who by a new set of impossible commands should infallibly p. 72reforfeit themselves again: and if this cannot be suppos'd, the contrary may be concluded, that he hath so far condescended to our imbecillity, as not to prescribe us any thing which he either finds or makes us not able to perform. 'Tis true indeed, his Laws are above the reach of our corrupt and debased nature; and they were unfit to be his, were they not so: but when he by his grace offers to elevate and refine this nature, bring it up to the pitch and purity of those Laws, this is a far greater mercy than if he had descended to our corruption; so he might have contaminated himself, given laws unworthy of him: but alass what advantage would it be to us, to have the Blasphemy mention'd, Psal. 50. so verified to have our God in this sense, such a one as our selves? but by this other Method he purifies, and exalts us: puts us in a capacity of being like unto him, in which is summ'd up at once, all both vertue and felicity.

AND on this glorious end every particular command of his, has a direct aspect, every one of them tending to re-impress on us some part of that divine image which was raz'd out by the first sin: and this one would think enough to recommend them to our highest value. Certainly, if Conscience may be Iudge, it will be so: there being in this case no middle between devout reverence, and horrid blasphemy; for he that despises such an assimulation, must necessarily also despise him who is so resembled: he who thinks meekness, purity, humility, &c. unamiable qualities, p. 73can have little esteem for him, in whom they are so transcendently eminent, but will take the Prophet at his word, and say, there is no form nor comeliness in him, Es. 53. But this sure can never be the Verdict of Conscience; he that can thus pronounce, must be suppos'd to have supprest and silenc'd that. It being one of the most indelible notions there, that all that is in God, is sublimely excellent. But because 'tis indeed too possible that conscience may be put under such an undue restraint, suffer the violence of a Prisoner, when it should sustain the place of a Iudge: because many men dare not permit their consciences to speak, lest they should say more than they are willing to hear. And lastly, since these persons make their appeal to reason, pretend the aids, and boast in the advantages of that, it may not be amiss to bring the Cause unto that Bar: whose Empire and Authority none must disclaim that own the Style, and least of all those Scepticks in Religion with whom we have to do: who will allow of no conviction but from it.

AND God, who as the Apostle saies, leaves not himself without witness, has so temper'd and dispos'd his Precepts as to qualifie them to pass even this Test also, they being not the contradictions but improvements of natural Reason: and so most apt to recommend themselves to all that is Man, not Brute about us. Indeed they have the very same aim and design with that. It has ever been the grand business of sober reason first to discover, and then to attain that one supreme p. 74good, which would give rest and felicity to the soul: in this inquisition have the Philosophers and greatest Masters of Reason, laid out their most serious studies and deepest contemplations; and in their indefatigable pursuits seem joyntly to sigh out David's question, Who will shew us any good? and now the Gospel comes a solution of this so important a Query, brings these glad tidings of joy to all people, and that not only in its credenda, by informing us what that Good is: but in its agenda too, by tracing us out the Way to it: beating us a path which will certainly lead us to that summum bonum which our very Nature implicitly gasps after; and sure Reason can never jar with this, which comes thus as a happy Auxiliary to succour its impotence: as an infallible Guide to conduct its steps: and as a glorious Light to give it a clear view, of what it before blindly groped after. 'Tis a certain Indication of Madness, to tear and mischief those things that would be useful to us, to curse and revile a friend, or fly in the face of those whose charity brings them to our aid; and therefore 'tis most evident that Reason must first cease to be reason, and commence Phrenzy, before 'tis possible it can set its self in defiance of those Laws of Christ, which are thus accommodated to its greatest Interests.

AND as the accord is thus observable in the ultimate, so is it in the intermediate design also. Reason had by its twilight discern'd that, that Soveraign Bliss it aim'd at, would never be hit by p. 75an unsteady hand; by him who was perpetually tossed and agitated by his turbulent inordinate appetites. Therefore young men, yet in the heat and ferment of their bloud were solemnly proscrib'd and banisht from the Schools and Lectures of Philosophy; therefore lustrations and Catharticks of the mind were sought for, and all endeavour us'd to calm and regulate the fury, if not extirpate (which some contended for) the very being of the Passions: that so a preparation might be made first for the knowledge and then the attainment of felicity: Now the Gospel Precepts have visibly the same end and purpose: every one of them expresly singling out some irregular affection to combate and subdue: so that right Reason and They are evidently of a Sect and Party, insomuch that several of the ancientest Fathers of the Church attributed the excellent documents of Heathen Philosophers to the Divine foreign, the reason and essential Word of God which after was incarnate upon earth; and brought auxiliary strengths of Grace, to aid the weaknesses of Nature. The blessed Iesus whose bare word Checkt the Sea in its highest fury, and by that Miracle attested his Divinity; as much exerts himself in silencing the louder Tempests, and calming the intestine storms within our breasts. And certainly Reason will not quarrel to have been thus reliev'd, it being the property only of proud Folly to chuse rather to lose a victory than owe it to the aid of an Allie.

FROM this general view, it were easie to p. 76descend to observe the exact concurrence of particulars. God loves a reasonable service, and has so temper'd his commands, that every Act of obedience we perform may be so qualified: and gain unto its votaries the Elogium promis'd in the Law of Moses, Deut. 4. 9. Surely this people is a wise and understanding People. And first that the command of Meekness is a most rational Precept can never be doubted by any who remember but the common definition of Anger, that it is Furor brevis, and sure 'tis very reasonable not to be mad, and he that has observ'd the unmanly transportations of that wilde passion, how that the first violence it offers is to the man within him, will certainly think it the interest, not only of his Religion, but common prudence, and right Reason to suppress it. And the like is to be said of the more solemn Phrensie of deep malice and deliberate Revenge, where the fury wants the allay of being transient and short liv'd, is embodied into Complexion and temper, and grows inveterate into Nature. Anger indeed is a fire, and he that touches it though but lightly, will find it scorch him: but the Malicious lays himself as it were to roast at it; prolongs and spins out his own Torment as if he meant to anticipate his Punishment in his very crime, and commence his Hell here, in unquenchable fire. Truly no sin does more represent that state of horror to which it tends; it gives a man not only a certain Title, but an ample Earnest, pays him part in hand of those dismal wages. This was so well understood p. 77even by the Heathens that we see the Poets knew not how more Emphatically to describe the future torment of an envious and malicious person, than by the representation of his sin. Prometheus Vultur begins her quarry in this life; every malignant Thought, every spightful Wish preys upon his Heart that harbours it: every revengeful project puts him in the pangs of labour till it be brought forth; and when it is, it commonly rebounds so mischievously upon the Parent, that the birth seems like that of Agrippina when she bare Nero that murder'd her. And surely not only reason, but common sense, will say this is a state to be detested, and consequently must give its suffrage to those Laws of Meekness and Charity which are the only expedients to prevent it. Peace is deservedly reckon'd among the highest blessings of communities, and sure it has a proportionable value, in every single member of those greater bodies, it being that which is indispensably requisite to the enjoying of any other good. A War we know interrupts at once all the profits and pleasures of a Nation: and this hostile Temper in a mans mind does the very same, and like Choler in the stomach, takes off all gust of the most delightful things, and so becomes a Hell in the poena damni, as well as that of Sense: and then how absurd an impatience is it, for men to think every the slightest injury from another insupportable, and yet heap such heavy pressures upon themselves, like froward Children roar out for the least touch from another hand, yet p. 78knock and batter themselves without complaint: as if their only contention were, that they may be the sole Authors of their own Calamity. And that which adds yet more, if it be possible, to add to so vast a folly, is, that Revenge never repairs any Injury: if I have been reproacht or defam'd, 'tis not the wounding of my enemies body that will heal my fame, I may by that means help to spread the Libel by inviting many to enquire the cause of our quarrel: but that is no Medium to prove him a slanderer, the world being too well acquainted with the nature of revenge to imagine it an argument of his innocency that acts it: so far it is from being such, that it gives a most violent presumption of guilt, according to that notable Observation of the Historian, Convitia spreta exolescunt, si irascare agnita videntur. In like manner suppose me hurt in my body, Retaliation brings no balm to my sores: my pains abate not by his having the like or greater; nor would my Wounds fester the less though his should Gangrene. So if I am endammag'd in my goods, I may contrive to repay him that ill turn, and yet not recover my own loss; and generally the spightful spoils that are made, are of that nature. 'Tis true, the Law may in some cases repair the injur'd person: but then that is owing to the Justice of the Law, not to the malice of the Plaintiffe: for he that sues upon the naked intuition of recovering his Right, without any aspect of Revenge on the invader, has as fully the benefit of the Law (and indeed none can innocently have p. 79it otherwise) and then to what serves the vindicative humor, what increment or advantage can the superaddition of his revenge bring him in? 'Tis sure in all these instances it often does the quite contrary: plunges him in farther troubles and dangers, and when all this is consider'd, we may certainly pronounce Christs precept of Meekness, partakes as well of the Serpent as the Dove, is as well prudent as innocent: nor is this Conclusion at all shaken, by that Objection which men make from the danger of inviting more injuries and affronts by this tameness: for first suppose there were truth in it; that hazard could not ballance the many certain mischiefs which have been evinc'd inseparably to follow the contrary temper: and it were certainly less penal to endure multitudes of light and transient Abuses, than those far more uneasie waies of Redress, which mens revenges suggest to them: and then 'twill be perfectly reasonable, of these two evils to chuse the less. As for the greater and more important violations, there are legal waies which may prove redress in some cases, or prevention in others: He that is slandered or impoverished, may take a course to clear his Innocence, or recover his Goods: he that is hurt or maim'd, though he is uncapable of reparations, yet the Law provides for his future security, by awarding such Penalties, as may discourage the Offender from repeating the violence: and to these aids, a man may resort with these Proviso's, first, that he abstract from all design of Revenge; and secondly, that the matter be p. 80of Weight; and certainly he that by these legal means cannot be secur'd, can be much less so by any private attempt of his own: For he that despiseth the coercive power of Laws, will much more contemn the enmity of a single person. The only difficulty in this case is, when a state is in such a confusion that there is no lawful Judicature to appeal to, but that implies so many sadder miseries, than the want of such a redress amounts to, that every man may patiently enough cast this into the heap of greater evils; and not consider that one pressure, when so much weightier calamity exacts his grief: But sure the Suspension of Law in this particular does no more qualifie a private person to be his own Revenger, than it invests him in any other part of Authority, and he may with as good right place himself on the Bench, and become a Iudge in other mens causes, as thus become both Iudge and Executioner in his own.

BUT in the last place, the ground of this objection seems weak and sandy; for that meekness is not the way to expose a man, generally speaking, to more suffering: 'tis possible indeed through the barbarity of some few insulting cowards, who love to vapour good cheap, that they may trample on those who give least resistance; but this is not the common bent of humane Nature, (which ought to be the measure in this case) we find men usually exasperated by Opposition, who are calm'd and appeas'd by Gentleness. Anger is not of the nature of that monstrous Fire p. 81the Historian tells us of, which nothing but blows could extinguish. It is the Observation of the wisest of Men, that a soft answer turneth away wrath, and mens Passions are like Bullets which batter the walls which stand inflexible, but fall harmlesly into Wool or Feathers; and I doubt not common experience will attest it, that none do generally fall under fewer of these storms than they, who are thus prepar'd to bear them. Let a meek and an angry person cast up their Accounts together, and compare the number of affronts and contumelies they have met with, and I believe the Odds will be as great, as between Sauls thousands and Davids ten thousands. 'Tis certain that the return made to the first injury provokes a new one; men being so partial to themselves, that he who receives a harm by way of Retaliation, never reflects on his own first guilt, but looks on it as a naked Injury, and so pursues his Revenge, which has again the same effect on the other, and so this wild-fire runs round, till it have set all in a flame; made the saddest vastations, not only in mens Minds, but their outward Concernments too, in the many fatal outrages, which these eager contentions occasion, all which would be avoided by a meek disregard of the first provocation: So that although some injuries may fall upon the Passive man, yet infallibly there would be no broils and quarrels, which are alone the great accumulators and multipliers of injuries; which alone demonstrates how unjustly Meekness is charg'd with so much as an accidental p. 82production of them; and vindicates that precept of Christ which has faln under so much, not only Cavil but Scorn; it appearing that to abstain from revenge, and refer the hazards of that to Gods providence (which is the importance of his command to turn the Cheek) is the greatest even moral Security against Violence, and so approves our Lawgiver (in this so decried particular) to be as well the wonderful Counsellour, as the Prince of Peace.

IN the next place, if we weigh the precept of humility and lowliness in the balance of sober discourse, we shall certainly find it hold a just weight. Indeed Pride is nothing but Deceit, a meer cheat and delusion, and so every man can discern it in another, we there are able to trace the windings of this Serpent, and say this man thinks himself more wise, this more learned, a third more holy than he is: yet alass in our own breasts we discern not the Abuse, suffer him to perswade us what he but promis'd to our first Parents, that we are as Gods, something so super-excellent, that all must reverence and adore: And herein we take him at his word, never suspect these glorious Attributions may be no more than Complement or Flattery; or what is no less obvious, Derision and Scorn. To a considering man 'twould be a shrew'd presumption against whatever Pride suggests, that 'tis attended always by self-love, which is, as it were, the common setter to all those cheats which circumvent and fool us: But there want not also more convincing proofs of its deceit and unsincerity. When e're we overween and believe well of p. 83our selves, it is in contemplation of some imaginary or else real good; somewhat a Man has not, or somewhat that he has: If we do it upon the former account, that is undeniably a gross Delusion; a kind of deceptio visus, a filling the Eye with phantastick Aerial Images, which have no solid Being: And God knows, such Phasmes, such Apparitions are most of those excellencies which men applaud in themselves; things conjur'd up by the Magick of a strong imagination, and are only seen within that Circle in which the Enchanter stands: And though Satan be the grand Master of this black Art, yet his Pupils are now grown so dextrous, that he seldom needs to be call'd in; our own partialities and fondnesses to our selves, are abundantly sufficient for the purpose. But if in the second place we suppose the things to be really existent in us, yet Pride runs us upon an other error no less dangerous than the former, for it betrays us to mistake the true Owner of them, emboldens us to set our own mark upon those rich Wares, in whose acquest we have not been so much as Factors; God is the one great Author and proprietor of all that is or can be valuable in us; to his Providence or his Grace we owe all the accomplishment of our outward or inward man, and though he allows us the use and benefit of them, yet the Glory is a special Royalty, which (as the Gold or Silver Mines of a Nation) is reserved to his Crown, an incommunicable piece of his Regality. And how wofully does our Pride befool us, when it brings us in such false Inventories p. 84of our goods, makes us dream our selves rich by anothers wealth; like Children that call every thing theirs which looks splendidly, or the mad Athenian celebrated by Horace for his happy phrensie, that resolv'd all the Ships and Wares his own that came into the Cities harbour: But how more sadly does it betray us, when it thus puts us upon the invasion of his propriety, who is not as the impotent Monarchs of the earth, unable to assert his own Rights, but can certainly Vindicate himself to our Confusion, against whom no rebellion can be any longer prosperous than he willingly permits it, and who has solemnly avowed he will not give his glory to another: And when our Pride makes us thus both ridiculous and miserable, when it seduces us not only into the folly of Children and extravagancies of Lunaticks, but at once into the guilt of bold, and punishment of improsperous Rebels: Certainly Reason can never become its Advocate, or put in any demur to that Sentence which excludes so treacherous a guest out of mens hearts; which is the sole aim of those laws of humility which Christ has given us.

NOR will the Precepts of Temperance and Purity find any worse doom at this Bar, the contrary Vices being such indignities and contumelies unto humane nature, as can never find any countenance from this Supreme part of it: 'Tis the prerogative of our Reason, that it discriminates us from, and elevates us above beasts: Nor can it ever be brought to resign this so glorious a priviledge, assent to the admission of those brutish appetites p. 85which would over-run the Soul, level its superior with its inferior faculties; confound the distinction of Rational and Sensitive, and in a word, render the Beast so ravenous as to eat up the Man. Yet thus it is in those sordid Sins of Intemperance and Uncleanness, unless perhaps they are so much worse than Beastial that I wrong the generality of the Brutes in the comparison, it being only some few of them, the very Beasts of the Beasts that are guilty of any such Excesses, for generally their Appetites do not transgress the regular ends of Nature, they know no such disease as Surfetting, but eat to satisfie Hunger, and couple at such seasons as best tend to preserve their kind; and then 'tis to be consider'd how base, how degenerous a descent it is for us to stoop, not only below our own nature, but theirs; what a solitude these vices reduce us to, that not so much as the nobler sort of Beasts will bear us company, we must wander upon the mountains to court a Goat, we must rake the mire to find a Swine, before we can furnish our selves with any Associates: And sure all this so open an Hostility against-Reason, that it can by no means be her interest to abet it. Ask her whether she would be prest to death with loads of meat, whether she would be drown'd in floods of drink, whether she would be suffocated with the noisome vapours of putrefaction and rottenness, and the answer she gives to these tells you her sense of Gluttony, Drunkenness and Uncleanness: Alas she suffers from them the most barbarous outrages, is invaded not only p. 86in her Authority, but her very Being, and therefore even upon the so celebrated principle of selfpreservation, must muster all her forces to vindicate the injury and defend her self. And then certainly Christs Commands of Sobriety and Purity must needs be entertain'd with all Alacrity and Gladness, as an accession of strength to her party, an aid to assist her in that just and necessary War.

AND as Reason thus pronounces against the sins of the Flesh, so in the next place does it certainly against those of the World. Mammon himself will not be able to bribe this Iudge, but when Christs Precept of Charity and liberality comes before this Tribunal, it will infallibly be not only acquitted but magnified and applauded, be call'd from the Bar to the Bench, Commissioned like the Iews, Hest. 9. To bear rule over them that hated them, to dissipate at once the wealth and the covetousness of the Worldling; have the Keys put into its hand, that it may have free access to his Coffers; this certainly must be the event of this trial, for 'tis confessedly the part of Reason to dispose every thing to those uses which are most proper and advantageous, such as may bring in most real benefit to the owner. Now what other employment of wealth is there (after competent accommodations are provided) which can contribute to a mans Felicity? If it be laid out like the Rich mans in the Gospel in delicious Fare, or Purple and fine Linnen; certainly it makes no least approach towards it. First, for excessive Fare, if a man be not excessive too in the p. 87eating, what does he enjoy of it? Meat has no natural propriety to the Eye, and can make no impressions of pleasure there; but if he be voracious and intemperate, 'tis then so far from making him happy, that it dejects him into the forlorn condition, even now mentioned, sets him at odds with his reason, his very manhood, nay, I may add with his very sense too; the displacencies that he receives by the consequencies of his excess, far outweighing all that is grateful in it. This is well describ'd by the Wise man, Ecclus. 31. 19.

AS for the gayety of Apparel that can never in sober judging be thought any advantage, 'tis that which only Youth and Folly puts a value upon, and as we out-grow the one, so we do the other: All that is convenient in Cloaths is as well, nay, better provided for without it: A rich suit is only heavier, not warmer than a plain; and it is a kind of prodigy to see how heavily vanity, which is in its self so light, sits upon some men; who are content even to make themselves Porters, so their Tailors may lay on the burthen: And thus in many other instances the fineness of Cloaths destroys the ease, so that it often helps men to pain, but can never rid them of any; the body may be languishing and infirm under the most splendid cover: Herods royal apparel secures him not from being eaten with Worms; and Lazarus his Ulcers would have been never the less painful, though they had been wrapt in Dives his fine Linnen.

OR if the Wealth be laid out on any other part of that the world calls greatness, as an Honourable p. 88retinue, Troops of attendants, and the like; the return will be no less empty: Multitudes of unprofitable Servants being a geat burthen, but no degree of advantage; alas does my Meat relish ever the better, because my Table is surrounded with Waiters; or when I go out, does my train of followers make the Air the more refreshing to me, does not rather the Dust they raise make it less, annoy and stifle me? As for matter of business, the number of Servants tends rather to hinder than advance it; daily experience attesting, that in crouds of domesticks every one of them thinks his idleness will be hid: The care of doing and the guilt of omitting is transferr'd from one to another, and none has any farther thought, than how he may quit himself either of the burthen or the blame; so that upon the final account all that accrues to a Master by the greatness of his family is the encrease of his care in the regiment of it: A great deal of vigilance and circumspection being requir'd, to keep it in any tolerable order, and if it be not so kept, his House becomes a wilderness, and himself a prey to the Beasts he feeds: The licentiousness of the Servant redounding more ways than one to the damage of the Master.

IF we should now proceed more minutely to every other single expence which vanity and pride suggests, we should certainly find the like success of our inquest; nothing of real felicity, but on the contrary the vanity so interwoven and incorporate with vexation of Spirit, that 'tis impossible to sever them: So that thus to employ ones p. 89riches is rather to suffer than enjoy them; but if we suppose a man on the other side such a Reverer of his wealth, that he dares not employ it at all, unless it be at the bank, for the bringing in of more, that keeps it as men do beasts reserv'd for breed, manumit them from all work but that of propagation. Such a person is surely of all others, the farthest from receiving any advantage by it: he converts it from a Servant into a Tyrant, and sad experience shews us the calamity of such a transmutation. It has been always hold the severest treatment of Slaves and Malefactors damnare ad Metalla, force them to dig in Mines; now this is the Covetous mans lot, from which he is never to expect a release, as being his own remorseless and more than Egyptian task-master: and the parallel holds too, in the gainlesness as well as laboriousness of the work; Those wretched creatures buried in Earth and darkness were never the richer for all the Ore they digg'd, no more is the insatiate Miser, he has no power to dispose of any of his acquests; and though he calls them his, yet alass he possesses them no otherwise than a Prisoner does his Goal, a Mad-man his Chains, they are only Instruments of his Thraldom, and the getting more serves only to add more weight to his Shackles; and certainly Wealth can be no way worse dispos'd, than thus to buy so base a Servitude.

AND now since neither the luxurious spending, nor the covetous keeping can advantage us one step towards any thing that can be call'd p. 90happy; but do on the contrary engage us upon toil and misery: Wealth seems to be a very oppressive burthen, such as we can neither cast off, nor safely bear; and truly so it is till Charity comes into our Aid; which as the proper Element of Wealth, renders that light which gravitates elsewhere, and as the Elixir unto Metals transforms them into Gold, stamps purity and price upon them: by freely giving, endows the Donor with what ever he bestows; enriches him, and what is more, enriches wealth its self. Without this Art of using, and disposing our estates, we are those Indians who change their Gold for Glass: that silly Fisher-man, who having found a Mass of Ambergreece, employd it to the liquoring of his boots; are foolish to the height of Midas in the Fable, who being promis'd to have what ever he would wish, made his demand that every thing he toucht might presently be Gold, and run the hazard that he did of being starv'd by our unhappy affluence: men say indeed that Gold by preparation becomes a soveraign Cordial, but certainly it never does rejoyce the heart so much as when Charity is the Chymist, the poor mans hand is the best Limbeck to extract this Magistery and tincture, the flames of love will really perform those Miracles, they of the Furnace boast of, and would they employ themselves in this laboratory, they would find the omnipotent efficacy they dream of, sooner in this way of dissipating, than in all their Arts, or rather Fancies of generating Gold. 'Tis certainly a most generous and enlivening pleasure which results p. 91from a seasonable liberality: When I see a man strugling with want, his very spirit as well as body stooping under the pressure; if I then relieve him, the humane nature within me which is common to us both, does by a kind of Sympathetick motion exult and raise up its self, but if I have any piety that must do it much more; for as the former shew'd me my own image in my poor brother, so this shews me Gods; and how transcendent a satisfaction must it be, to have thus rescued him who bears so divine an impress, to have paid some part of gratitude to my Creator for my own being, by making my self in my low sphere the giver or preserver of that life, which he first breath'd into another. This, and this only is the way to raise a felicity out of wealth; and surely since the attaining of happiness, is the one grand pursuit of our Reason, that must even before it has subjected its self to the Faith of Christ, give assent to the Prudence of his Command in this as well as the former instances.

BUT there remains a Precept of our Saviours allied to this; which seems by no means to comport and hold a correspondence with the dictates of right Reason: the taking up the cross, and suffering for righteousness sake; which contradicts the fundamental law of self preservation; and the great end of being, felicity and happiness. But this suggestion, how specious soever it appear, is utterly fallacious; for 'tis no good consequence, that because Reason aims at our being happy, therefore it forbids us all voluntary sufferings, since p. 92that the case may be so set, that such a suffering may be the fairest medium left us to our happiness. 'Tis a known rule that of two evils, the least is to be chosen; and the election of the lesser ill, though it be no absolute, yet is a comparative good; and its attainment as far as the necessity of our affairs permit, is our felicity: and reason can provide no farther. Now this is the estate of the present instance: two evils are propos'd, a Natural and a Moral; the Natural, though in its self to be averted, yet much inferiour to the Moral, and then Reason soon resolves the Dilemma, that the Natural is to be chosen: all that can be question'd in this affair, is whether Reason define the moral evil to be the greater, but this can bear no long dispute with any who consider but the Nature of Reason, which being seated in the upper soul of a man, is no way concern'd in those Ills, which make their impression on the sensitive part, but Moral ills strike higher, invade the mind, cloud the reason; nay, often depose it from its regiment, as is too frequently exemplified in the force of vicious habits, and therefore by how much our reason is superior to our sense, so much are those to be accounted the greatest evils, which assault that nobler part of us. This certainly will now be the determination of Reason, if she may be permitted the freedom of her vote: for thus was it formerly where she bare the most sway, and uncontrouled rule: The wisest and best considering of humane, as well as divine Authors having establisht it as an undoubted Aphorism, p. 93that honest is to be preferr'd before both gainful and pleasant: so that nothing renders a man so deplorable, as that which violates his integrity; nay they have generally gone higher, exhorted men to become voluntiers in vertues warfare, not to suspend their sufferings till they were forc't out by the competition of a crime; but offer themselves free oblations. Thus to suffer for ones Countrey or ones Friend, was thought so worthy, so heroick a thing, that noble and ingenuous spirits were aemulous of it: and it was so stated a case that Epictetus forbids a man, on such an occasion to consult with the Oracle, whether he should do it or no, it being necessary to be done, what ever ill success or ruine be predicted, foreign, and how serious they were in these perswasions, some of them have practically evidenced, as having suffered very inconsiderable pressures, nay death its self rather than they would bow to the praedominant vices of their Age, or omit the occasion of eminent vertue. Aristides would be just in spight of Ostracism. Regulus observant of his Oath made to a faithless Enemy, though Death and Torment attended the Performance. Lycurgus to perpetuate to his Citizens the benefit of his good Laws, as subtly designs perpetual Banishment unto himself, as others use to contrive for Honour and for Empire there. Codrus redeems the safety of his Army with his own Death: Curtius makes himself a Martyr for his Countrey, and Socrates in the stricter sense becomes one for his God: laid down his life in attestation p. 94of that most fundamental truth and leading article of Faith, foreign, the belief of one God. And yet we find not that those Times, which were so ill as to shed his Bloud, were yet so bad as to defame his Memory, he's not recorded either as fool or hypocondriack; nor have his sufferings struck him out of the list of Philosophers: but he stands there the more conspicuously in those bloudy Characters; and however the credit of the Oracle may be otherwise disparaged, it never was on this account, that it had declared Socrates to be the wisest of Men. And yet both he and the rest, had either none, or very imperfect confus'd apprehensions of a future reward, when they engaged on present Suffering, and death its self: So that we might be tempted to imagine, that some strange change and transmutation has now befaln Vertue, that it has put on so much a distant appearance from its ancient self, that the accession of new obligations, and higher hopes, should absolve, avert and utterly dispirit us; insomuch that what was Constancy in a Heathen, should be Folly in a Christian. Certainly this is a Metamorphosis of our own making, we look through deforming optick glasses, such as our Avarice or effeminate Sensualities convey into our hands, which give not only strange and gastly, but withall ridiculous shapes; but if we would consult our Reason, that would shew us things in their proper forms. Vertue and Reason are both the same they were so many hundred years ago, and where the Object and p. 95the faculty admit of no mutation, 'tis impossible there should really be any such variable appearance. If Socrates were so zealous for the one God, that he chose rather to relinquish his life, than to consent to, or but connive at the profane rivalry of Polytheisme, and yet be no Fool; certainly we may as sucurely transcribe his copy: and though the particular Article may not be the same; yet if it be any thing wherein vertue is concern'd, the cause is no less warrantable: he that suffers for a practical Point, is no more a prodigal of his pains, than he that lays them out on the highest Speculative. The Commandments may have as good Martyrs as the Creed; for the same Authority has requir'd our Obedience to the one, that exacts our Faith of the other. Nor is there any necessity of Heathen or Iewish Tribunal, to convert our sufferings to Martyrdom; we may receive that crown from the hands of those that own the same faith with us. Those that say with the most seeming vehemence let the Lord be glorified, may yet hate and cast out their brethren for his name sake, Isa. 66. 5. He that tells me I fear not God so much as he, may yet persecute me for honouring the King more; and my Bloud pour'd out upon that account, becomes an acceptable Sacrifice to him, who has commanded my Subjection to the Higher Powers. He who calls Christ his Head, may yet rend and tear his Body; and if I love its communion so well, as to take my share in the Massacre, I approach toward that dignity and comfort S. Paul so glories p. 96in, of filling up that which is behind, of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his bodies sake which is the Church, Col. 1. 24. He that mulcts the more Indeliberate Oaths, may yet enjoyn a solemn Perjury: and if I chuse he should rather make havock of my Goods than my Conscience; my Spoils become not more monuments of his rapine, than my piety; they plead my Innocence before him who will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain: and how profanely soever my Wealth is dispos'd by him that seizes it: 'tis accounted to me as cast into the Treasury; and so 'tis possible I may at once vie with the Rich-men in the greatness of the oblation, and with the poor Widow too in that higher circumstance of its being all. In sum, the opportunities of Martyrdom are not restrained to those points wherein Christians differ from Iews or Heathens, but extend to all wherein we Christians differ from our rule, the commands of our blessed Master. If I suffer for my Constancy to any of them, I have certainly my place in Gods Martyrology, as well as if I had faln under any of the ten Persecutions. God was not so partial to the primitive Christians as to allow them the Monopoly and enclosure of that dignity; if they as our elder Brethren had a double portion, yet there is still a childs part left, for every one of us enough to testifie our Legitimation, and secure us from the brand of Bastardy, Heb. 12. 'twas S. Pauls indefinite Affirmation, and all times since have born witness to the truth of it. That all that will live godly in p. 97Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution. Some unfashionable Vertues there have been in every Age, which have whetted, if not the Swords, yet the Tongues of men: and those that happen not to fall under Abels persecution, must not hope to escape that of Isaac: if they meet with no Cain to kill, they will undoubtedly with an Ishmael to mock them. But in what dress soever our Sufferings appear, a good Cause divests them of their frightful shape, pulls off the ugly vizard, and shews us a Beauty that lay there conceal'd; and that not only to the Eye of our Faith but our Reason too. Fortitude was a Vertue before Christianity had a name in the world; and the very instinct of our Nature whispers within us, the baseness of being baffled out of a Truth or Vertue; yet such a despicable Coward, is every man that wants this passive Valour, without which the active must find another name, Rage or Phrensie it may be, in some perhaps natural Courage, or sanguineness of temper in others, but true Valor it is not, if it knows not as well to suffer as to do. That mind is truly great, and only that which stands above the power of all extrinsick violence; which keeps its self a distinct principality independent upon the outward man, so that it is not subjected to its fate, that can be free, when the body is fast bound in Misery and Iron, sound and healthy when that groans under torture, and is never more strong and vital, than when that languishes and expires; and this is so desirable, so transcendent a priviledge, as Reason cannot but aspire to: and this is p. 98it to which this excellent Precept of Christ advances us when we thus suffer for righteousness sake, our Minds are all light what darkness soever involve our exterior part, and is like Goshen exempt and secure, when that falls under all the Plagues of Aegypt.

'AND what reason thus embraces for its self, 'tis not imaginable that it should reject, because 'tis richly clad, that the Race should seem the more tedious, because there is a Crown within view; or that the glorious Rewards our Christianity proposes to our constancy, should be esteemed as Menaces and Threats, Temptations to desert or turn Apostates. No certainly, Reason cannot dispute, and make an Inference so utterly Illogical, but will rather use it as an enforcement of its former Conclusion, establish it the more firm and immovable by having the Basis thus enlarged, having Reward added to Vertue, and Happiness entail'd on Duty. If in the competition between two Evils, Reason pronounce the lesser eligible: Much more will she resolve, when the contest is 'twixt good and evil, the greatest Evil and the greatest Good; and chuse that Excellence which though Superlative in its self, is more endear'd and heightned by Comparison. If I violate my Reason, if I renounce Vertue, though bare and naked, then surely I do it yet more when she is thus accomplisht and adorn'd; when beautified on purpose to allure the eye and take the Heart. When over and above the positive donation of Happiness, she adds a rescue and release from Misery, and p. 99equally obliges by the distant prospects of a Hell and Heaven. So that not only the Gospel promises, but even menaces and threats become a Weapon in the hand of Reason, when she stands upon her guard, and fights for Vertue. If sin present its self as my Protector from a temporal Calamity, Reason will tell me hence, that the profer is insidious, it exposes me to that which is infinitely worse than what it pretends to save me from; and that not only in the former respect of Guilt, but in that of Punishment also. What a cheat is it to keep me out of the Dungeon, and send me to the bottomless Pit, to save me from a temporary Fire, and thereby mark me out as Fuel for eternal Flames; to take me out of their hands who can kill the Body, to put me into his who can destroy both Soul and Body in Hell. Reason tells me I am to abhor the Turpitude and foulness of a Crime; and it tells me too, I am to dread the Misery and Smart of it also. It would not have me wallow in the mire, though it were safe, much less when it is full of Asps and Vipers, which will infallibly sting me to death. It cries out with Ioseph, How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? And it cries out with Esay too, Who can dwell with everlasting Fire? In a word, by the domestick native light of the Candle of the Lord set up within our breast, it shews the ugliness of Sin; and shews it too by the affrightful dismal blaze of those unquenchable flames it kindles: Thus by the different Arguments of terror and endearment, of love and fear, of interest and duty, Reason asserts this p. 100scorn'd, decried, neglected Precept: Take her as meer Paynim abstracting from the expectation of reward or punishment; or take her as a Proselyte to Christ, contemplating his promises and threats, if there be Honesty or if there be Religion, in either instance the Soul must still conclude, that Affliction is to be chosen rather than Iniquity.

AND if it be reasonable thus to resist even unto blood striving against sin, if Reason blow the Trumpet, sound the Alarm to this solemn War, then surely it prescribes something of Martial discipline to prepare and dispose us for those Combats. No expert General will bring a company of raw untrain'd men into the Field, but will by little bloodless skirmishes instruct them in the manner of the Fight, teach them the ready managery of their Weapons; and of this sort are all those voluntary Self-denials, and lighter austerities which Christianity commends to us, which become necessary not simply for themselves, but as instruments towards a higher end. The Military fame the Romans had in the world was atchieved by the exact discipline of their Camps, enuring their Souldiers to labour and hardship. And, as Tacitus tells us, when a long Peace had slackned the reins of discipline, that active Humour, which was wont to be spent on the Enemy, recoil'd, and flew in the face of their Commanders, begat nothing but Mutinies and disorders; and certainly 'twill be the same in our Christian warfare, if we abandon our selves to Ease and Sloth, never attempt to wrestle with a difficulty, p. 101but keep our selves in the posture the Israelites Camp was in at Moses's descent from the Mount, eating and drinking, and rising up to play; our appetites will grow licentious and insolent, past our controle and guidance. If we treat them with such an indulgence as is recorded of David to Adoniah, never say so much as why hast thou done this; 'tis not to be expected but they will Rebel though a Solomon sit in the Throne. For alas, how is it imaginable, that he who never denied himself any the smallest or most trifling pleasure he had a mind to, shall on a sudden deny all in the gross; he who has projected many, but never wav'd one Opportunity of shewing his Wit, how shall he find in his heart to become a Fool for Christ. He that has gratified his Palate with all that pretends to be gustful to it, how shall he descend to the bread of Affliction; or he that never tried to miss a Meal, how will he entertain the unwelcome contrariety of not knowing where to get one. He who has never abated any thing of the utmost Pomp he could reach, how will he brook the want of necessaries; or from his House seil'd with Cedar, and painted with Vermilion, be content with his Saviours Lot, not to have where to lay his head. In short, how shall he who never could pare off any of the Excrescencies, the meer Vanities and Gaieties of an estate, part with it all; or lay down that life for Christs sake, from which he never substracted one smallest Pleasure. Suffering is a thing to which the sensitive part of us has an Innate Aversion, and Aversions are not to p. 102be subdued at once, but by gentle and easie degrees; and custom must have introduc'd a second nature, before that original part of our temper will be supplanted. As 'tis therefore highly reasonable for every man to aspire to the Dominion of himself, to keep his Affections within his own Power and Command; and though he have no Interest at all in the greater, enjoy a soveraignty in the lesser World: So in order to that, 'tis as reasonable to discipline and tame them by some voluntary Acts of restraint, like Hannibal, sometimes to pass by that water to which his thirsts do most importunately invite him. To try by little skirmishes what strength and skill he has, before he runs the fatal hazard of a Battel. To deny himself in the lesser instances, that so when the greater come, they may not have the disadvantage of Uncouthness and perfect Strangeness to inhanse their Difficulty; and this must certainly be acknowledg'd reasonable, or else we must condemn almost all the receiv'd Rules of humane transactions, which generally have this for their ground-work, that men must pass through the first Principles and lowest Rudiments of any Art, before they can arrive at its height. Men serve Apprentiships to Trades, and think not themselves the first day Masters of their craft; we advance in Learning by leisurable and slow steps, and skip not from the ABC to the Metaphysicks: And certainly the skill of Christian suffering is not the easiest of all Trades or Sciences; but will require some time of Initiation, many repeated Trials and Essays to bring us into p. 103an acquaintance with it: To convince our Understandings, and perswade our Wills, that to lose our lives is to save it; and to be faithful unto the death, is the best way to gain a Crown of life.

IF I should now proceed to every other Precept of Christ, and examine it by the Rules of sober Discourse, we should infallibly find them so rational as befits the Laws of him who is the eternal Reason, but having made these Essays in some of the most oppos'd Instances, I shall presume these may pass as the Representatives of all the rest; and the acquittal these have receiv'd at the Tribunal of Reason virtually involve them all.

AND now since both Conscience and Reason have pronounc'd the same of Christs Laws that Pilate did of his Person, that they find in them no fault at all; methinks Iudges should have the same priviledge that is allowed to private Men, that in the mouth of two every word may be establisht: But if any man be so scrupulous as not to rest in the sentence of less than a Triumvirate, let him in Gods name bring in a Third, and when his vicious Appetites (which were before excepted to as parties) are set aside, he cannot be distracted in his Choice, there being but One more that can possibly be call'd in, and that is Experience, which being a Iudge that himself must create, he can not fear it should be prejudic'd against him; so that he may entertain full confidence of its Integrity: And no less may he do of its Ability, this being the most infallible of humane determinations, such as often corrects the error of Speculation; p. 104and shews us the vanity of concluding what is practicable in matter from being demonstrated in the Scheme or Diagram: The guidance of an illiterate Traveller in the way that he has gone, being far more useful to a Stranger in his journey, than the best Maps and most exact Descriptions of Geographers. But then it must be indeed Experience, and not only some slight and transient Essay. We call not him an experienc'd Physician that has had one Patient, or a Lawyer that has pleaded one Cause. Experience is the daughter of Time, and is made up of many successive Trials, as a Habit is of multiplied Acts: And to the Verdict of such an Experience Christs Precepts will not fear to stand; let a man put himself into a setled course of Obedience to them, abstain so long from all prohibited Commissions, as may wear out the rank Taste wherewith his Palate has been season'd, and leave it free and disengag'd, and then infallibly he will find such a savour and sweetness in those vertues, that he will wonder how he came to be cheated into an opinion of their being bitter and unsavory; and will have no appetite to return to his Onions and his Garlick after he has thus been fed with Quails and Manna. That this will be the event of this experiment there is all ground of certainty, and when the trial is once made, so irrefragable an evidence will follow, that it will not leave a man the power to doubt: Only in the interim so much belief is requisite, as may let him in to the demonstration, make him set to that Practice from whence he is to reap all this: And if p. 105any man be so much a Sceptick, as not to have faith enough to put him on the adventure, I should at once for his conviction and punishment, wish but that he might a while extend the same distrust to Affairs of common life: Let him doubt whether his meat be savory and refuse to eat; whether his cloaths be warm and so go naked; whether his house be firm and lye without doors: and when he has a while thus smarted under his own discipline, let him but apply the wisdom he has thus bought to the present instance, and it will unquestionably resolve his scruple; or if he be still too Impatient to attend the ripening of his own Experience, let him make use of other mens. Let him appeal to any who has inur'd his neck to Christs yoak, and ask him whether it be galling and pinching, or whether it be not easie, nay gracious. Let him ask one who by repeated restraints hath subdued and tamed his natural rage or pride, how he likes the change, and undoubtedly he will tell him, 'tis no less happy than a calm is after the noise and danger of a violent Tempest, or the ease of a broken Imposthume, after the painful gathering and filling of it. Let him ask one who has divested himself of all his sensual sins, whether by their absence he now discern not their necessity, and he will tell him, 'tis but the same the primitive Christians had of those Beasts skins wherein their persecutors had clad them, whose only use was by deforming to fit them for devouring. Let him come to the converted Mammonist, and ask him which he finds the better Treasury, his own Coffer p. 106or the poor mans Bowels, and he will be able to assure him, he is become much richer by having less in store. Let him come to the devout Ascetick, and ask him what taste he finds in Daniels unpleasant bread, Dan. 10. 3. and he will tell him infinitely more than ever he did in Dives delicious fare, that cloy'd and surfeited the flesh, this nourishes and supports the spirit. Nay finally, let him come to him that is actually suffering for righteousness sake, and he will exemplifie to him the Beatitude which Christ has pronounc'd of such: Let him visit Paul and Silas in the prison and he shall hear them singing; Peter and the other Apostles after their stripes and beating, and he shall find them rejoycing: And Stephen amidst the Throng of his murderers and Tempest of their stones, and he shall observe him overlooking them all, and entertaining himself with a more pleasant prospect, seeing the Heavens open'd and Iesus standing at the right hand of God; and why should not other mens successes animate our endeavours here? In temporal affairs it seldom misses to do it. The Trophies of Miltiades at Marathon disturb'd Themistocles his sleeps, till he had rais'd unto himself and Countrey more glorious ones at Salamine: Caesar while he views Alexanders Image upbraids his own slackness with the memory of his conquests, and inspirits himself to great attempts. He that returns with a rich fraight from a new-found-Land encourages others to Trade thither also: Nay, even a begger speeds not well at an Hospitable door, but he is able to send sholes upon p. 107the like hopes: Much less does he that has found a treasure need to use his Oratory to invite partakers; and why then should those few that have made this more precious discovery be forc'd to monopolize it, as not being able to draw in partners; yet God knows, thus it is, those that hear of no rarity but they long for it, as David after the waters of Bethlehem, can yet hear the same David cry out, how sweet the Lord is! and yet have no curiosity to taste it: Those whom the very name of Liberty so captivates, that they sacrifice all that is really valuable to that Chimaera; can hear the Apostle speak of the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and yet like hardned Gally-slaves despise the Manumission. Those that hunt after pleasures till the very pursuit become an unsupportable pain, can be told of those rivers of pleasures wherewith God offers to quench their thirst, and yet inflict on themselves the rich mans torment, and deny so much as to dip the tip of their finger toward the cooling their own flames. Good God what strange infatuation is this, that while there is so much of vicious envy in the world, there should be nothing of vertuous emulation: That mens heat and vigour should all spend its self in childish pursuits, and leave them thus cold and stupid to their great and serious concernments. And what remains to him that ponders this Epidemick folly, but to breath out Moses's Wish; O that men were wise; or if that be too hopeless a vote, O that men were not so destructively foolish; that their rashness and Error might be confin'd to p. 108their lower interests: And as fools are treated, be kept from dealing in things of consequence; that they would not govern their Souls by such an absurd kind of managery, as they will not trust with the meanest of their outward concerns. And if this might but be obtain'd, if this fatal Oscitancy which has benumm'd and frozen them were but cast off, they would then from the report of the good Land be animated to their journey; and rather chuse to make the concurrent Testimonies of others arguments to encourage them, than leave them as Hand-writings to appale, or Witnesses to condemn them. And he that shall thus borrow other mens experience with this design of copying it out, and lays it as a foundation for his own, thereby possesses himself of one of the greatest advantages of the communion of Saints; kindles himself at their fire till he grows bright and high as it; combines his flame with theirs, and so encreases the Ardors of them both; follows Example till himself grows exemplary, and in one Act receives and gives. But he that thus sets out, must remember, that it is more than the Journey of one day he has to go; he must not think (as I said before) that every little superficial attempt is that Experience which he is in quest of: He that thus phansies will be expos'd to a very dangerous deceit, for 'tis sure there is in all habits such a force, that they are not to be dispossest but by a contrary violence, and therefore he that has been under the power of any vicious custom, enters at first into a state of hostility, has such a tough opposition, p. 109as rather finds him Work than Pleasure: Now if he shall upon this first Essay pronounce, he is like to pass a very unjust sentence: Let him fight on a while till he have got some ground, and then though the War afforded him little pleasure, the Victory will yield him much. Every repeated defeat he gives his Adversary will be a new triumph to him, and what the Romans courted as so great a Dignity he may every day enjoy. But then as he advances farther to the completing of his victories, so he does of his Pleasures too: when his irregular appetites are so subdued, that they rarely make insurrection, this is such a state of tranquillity as gives him leisure to discern, and enjoy the delights of Christian vertue, and will teach him to reproach the highest Panegyrick he ever heard of it as flat and imperfect: so infinitely will he find it exceed the utmost description, that he will say with the Queen of Sheba, the one half was not told him. This is the rich prize which they shall obtain that run the race, but it is not awarded to the first step; and hence it is so many fail of it, that when they find the uneasiness which attends the breaking off a custom; this is such a Gyant, a son of Anak, as turns them back discourag'd from the Canaan they went to view. But alas this discovers how small a stock of Resolution they carried out with them; for where men set out with heart and appetite, 'tis not such little difficulties that will dismay them: if it be but their sports they are engag'd in, it serves to deceive the sense of many uneasinesses, nay often p. 110dangers, he that is but in chase of a silly Hare is so keen upon it, that he feels not the weariness of a whole days motion, and if he meet with a hedge in his way will rather leap it with hazard than be diverted from his Game. But 'tis sure in their sins they suffer far greater hardships without discouragement. The puny drunkard is not disheartened by the first qualm, but repeats his excesses till he have overcome his queasiness. The cast Litigant sits not down with one cross verdict, but recommences his suit, passes it through all Courts, and considers not his own pains, so he may either weary or force the other out of his right. The Unclean person falls not out with his sin, how sadly soever it hath macerated him, but steps out of the hot-house into the Stews, and shall men be so indefatigable in their pursuits of Infelicity, buy one Torment with another, and drive on the year in a circle of such woful Traffick, and shall vertue and pleasure be thought not worth the smallest labour? Can they keep themselves in a perpetual contention with their ease, their reason, and their God; and can they not endure a short combate with a sinful custom, which if it have some uneasiness, yet its both infinitely short of what they have suffered in the contrary compliance, and besides carries its remedy in its hand: For if the Difficulty arise only (as doubtless it does) from the confirm'dness of the Habit, every Act of resistance as it weakens the Habit, so it abates the Difficulty. It is therefore a most unreasonable inference, from the trouble of the first opposition, p. 111to conclude the Impossibility of the future; for if the first were but troublesome and not impossible, the second will have yet less of the trouble, and so be yet farther remov'd from impossibility, and the third than the second, and so on till the difficulty vanish and disappear. And if men would but assume such a moderate courage, as but to keep the field, and not to run away upon the first gun-shot, they would soon find how impotent Assailants they had to deal with, who can never subdue any man by strength, who is not first Emasculated by his own fears. Let us therefore to shun the reproach of so dishonourable a Defeat awake and rouse our selves, put us in a posture of defence: And Satan, who is as cowardly as any thing in the world but we, will as St. Iames assures us, fly from us. Let us upbraid our selves with our unseasonable hardiness and resolution in our impieties, till we have chang'd the scene, grow impatient of those servile drudgeries, and ambitious of these honourable adventures. And to animate us the more, let us fix our eyes upon the glorious prize of the victory; and that not only the final and eternal in future Glory; but that Intermediate which offers its self as the earnest of That, the calm and pleasure of a conquering piety. The Roman story tells us that the Flavianists had so possest their minds with the spoils of Vienna, that they grew insensible of all dangers in the way to it, and even forc't their General Antonio to put them upon those hazards, which his wiser conduct would have declin'd. And why p. 112should not our more worthy Hopes excite as great an earnestness? why should not we have as great an Appetite to the pillaging of Satans Camp, plundring that infernal Magazein of all its Engins both of Mine, and battery, its stores of arms and Ammunition, leaving him naked and defenceless, unable to make any impression upon us? and this he certainly does, who by a steddy practice of vertue, comes to discern the contemptibleness of those baits wherewith he allures us. He that seeks only the praise of God, looks upon the applause of men as a blast of Air, which possibly may demolish and destroy a glorious building, but cannot give foundation or Materials to it; and therefore will not seek for, or solicit its unhappy courtships. He who desires to be great only in the Kingdom of Heaven, laughs at the busie Aspirings to secular greatness, and wonders at the force of that enchantment, which engages men with so extreme toil, to climb a tottering pinnacle, where the standing is uneasie, and the fall deadly. He that covets to be rich towards God, and has inur'd his eyes to that divine Splendor which results from the beauty of holiness, is not dazled with the glittering shine of Gold: considers it as a vein of the same earth he treads on, and despises that absurd partiality whereof the Prophet accuses Idolaters, to employ one part to the meanest uses, and fall down to the other. In a word, he that looks on the eternal things that are not seen, will through those Opticks exactly discern the vanity, and inconsiderableness of all that is p. 113visible and temporary; and so will be equally unmoved with the terrors or allurements of the world, and neither frighted nor flatter'd out of his duty. And he that is thus fortified discourages and wearies out his Tempter, deprives him not only of weapons but of heart too, and drives even Satan himself to desperation; and when the Enemy is thus beat out of the field, there remains nothing but to enjoy the victory. When that reluctance and resistance of the corrupt Appetite is so weakned and subdued that a man acts with freedom, he acts with pleasure too. A heart thus set at liberty, alacriously runs the ways of Gods commandments: it faring with it as with a Patient that is prescrib'd exercise for health; who at first perhaps finds lassitude and trouble in it: but when the obstructions are remov'd, and nature disburthened of those noxious humors that encumbred her, that which was at first his task, becomes his recreation. For we are not to think, that it is any innate harshness in piety that renders the first essays of it unpleasant, that is owing only to the indisposedness of our own Hearts. We are in the Prophets phrase bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke; and if we be galled and fretted by it, 'tis because of our impatient strivings, and irregular motions under it, the yoke is really no heavier than it is afterwards when it is more tamely born: and yet the Ease is very different and unequal. And this teaches us a short way to that felicity we now speak of, to wit, That we compose our selves to such a submiss and malleable p. 114temper, that Christ may come only to govern us as sheep, not to be put to tame us as Tigers, let us withdraw all supplies from our lusts, and not by any secret reserv'd affection give them clancular aids to maintain their Rebellion, and then they will not be able long to make any vigorous opposition, nor consequently much to disturb the tranquillity of those who have thus resign'd themselves to the government of the Prince of Peace: and if this cannot be done in such an instant, but that there will be some previous displacencies, and uneasie struglings, yet even those like the Scorpion, carry Antidote against their stings, when 'tis consider'd that they are but the pangs of the new-birth, they will become very supportable by the expectation of that Joy to which they tend. An enslaved people think themselves fairly advanc'd to happiness, if they can get but to make head against their oppressors, though they must expect many sore conflicts and sharp engagements before they become Victors: and certainly 'tis matter of inestimable joy to him, who has been under that sad spiritual slavery to be set thus upon even terms, with his sword in his hand against those, who once had him in such vassalage that he durst not lift up a thought against them; but especially when 'tis remembred with what invincible aids he is backt, such as will ascertain him of victory, if he do not treacherously defeat himself. And surely he must be of a strange phlegmatick temper, whom all these considerations will not enliven, convey into p. 115him so much spirit as to make an attempt, and engage him to do that upon so pressing, so great a concern which meer curiosity prompts men daily to in common affairs. And he that is not moulded of this cold and stubborn clay, he that has not lost one of the elements of mans composition, and has but a spark of fire in his temper, will surely have some warmth towards this so inviting an experiment: and when he has once made it, I doubt not, it will then joyn with the suffrages both of reason and conscience in approbation of Christs Laws, and will with Solomon pronounce of this spiritual wisdom, her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace, Prov. 3. 17.

AND now it must be a strange Violence of impiety, that must break this threefold cord, that shall disannul the joint sentence of all that are competent Iudges in this matter. This is not the strength of Samson that brake withs and cords, but of the Legion that pull'd in pieces fetters and chains; and though too many men make it their own work; yet certainly 'tis only the Devils Interest: he aspires to the rule and government of us; and to that end nothing can be more contributive than these prejudices we take up against Christs conduct. A Soul like a Nation, can neither bear two Legislators, nor be without one: And Satan having but that single competitor, our quarrelling with Christs Laws, is virtually an embracing of his. When we send Christ that rebellious message, Nolumus p. 116hunc regnare, we say to the other as the Trees to the Bramble, Jud. 9. 14. come thou and reign over us. And to this defiance of the one, and invitation of his opposite, he very nearly approaches, that thus defames Christs commands as irrational or severe. The traducing of a government being, we know, the immediate praeludium to the casting it off; libelling the forlorn-hope to rebellion. But would God men would soberly weigh whither such a mutinous humor tends; and when our outward Condition has given us so many pregnant and costly Proofs of its ruinous effects, take caution that it make not the like wrack within us: that we do not madly exchange Christs gentle service, and glorious Rewards; for Satans cruel bondage, and crueller Wages: the golden chains of the one which do more adorn than tie us; for the Iron, the Adamantine links of the other, which bind us till they deliver us over to those Chains of darkness, where our captivity shall be irreversible. If this so reasonable, so necessary a care may be admitted; 'twill certainly confute the profane sophistry of our Age, silence our impious Cavils, and instead of providing us of the colour of an austere Master to excuse our sloth: will engage us to that diligence that shall supersede the use of such shifts, and then we may hope to see Christianity have a Resurrection day again, assume a Body somewhat of solidity and substance; which now wanders about like a ghost or spectre, a shade or vanishing apparition which leaves no footsteps behind it: and to the re-union, O let us all emulously p. 117contribute, take up every one of us his dry Bones and bring it to the Prophet, or rather to Him who spake by that Prophet, to breath upon them, till at last they be cemented and inspirited in active Duty to shew forth the Praises of that God who hath call'd us out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. 2. 9.