The Whole Duty of Divine Meditation, Part 2 · Meditation 7
MED. VII. The Whole Duty of Man.
Eccles. xii. 13.
Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the Whole duty of man.
FEW there are which perform this Lesson; which yet should not so much appear our Duty, as it ought to be our Delectation. He that hath but once acquired the habit of adoring his Maker, will assideouslsly confess Religion the highest of Pleasures; and that Legislative Power which seems so formidable and disgustful to the World, will prove but recreative to his Immortal Soul. But alas, how little is there of the Royal Prophet's Piety now among us, when instead of delighting in God's Law, we obliterate it more; and are so far distant from meditating in it either Day or Night, that we never in the least think or consider of it at all.
II. 'TIS become a Custom, now, to Sin with Audacity; and a Syllogism of much Valour, to exile this timerous Religion, or fearing either the Almighty, or his Law, which he hath given us. The Royal Preachers edifying Doctrine is as obsolete, and worser than a Paradox; a meer Apocrypha, and a Heresie to revive it. To instruct us in our Duty, is to scurrilize the Times, whil'st we officiously unhinge Religion; and it is no amazing wonder there are such swarms of Atheists: but indeed, there never was such a time to generate them, as now; trace Antiquity to its primitive Rise, and this Age cannot be parallell'd.
III. THE World never encreased so much in Sin: abominable Sects, and disaffected Parties, like Colonies, new cultivate the Earth; Profaneness is grown Hereditary, and sprouts out by Propagation; so that in process of time, Posterity may perhaps become Ethnicks. Were the Divine Wisdom and his Promise mutable, a Deluge would prove but a slender Penalty. We not only sin, but exult in it more; whil'st some, not satisfy'd to be occult and silent Atheists, proclaim it aloud, and are fierce of acquiring the Reputation; as if we could not render our Ingenuity enough, without Denying our Maker.
IV. NO marvel Religion is out of Tune, when a Harmony in Ecclesiasticks is wanting; or that Christianity bears so faint a Sound, when common Morality is not heard. And yet it is a Lesson which we cannot learn too well, a Tribute we cannot pay too often. We owe our Breath to the Bounty of his Hand; what Homage then can we better pay than that, which by magnifying of him, we purchase an Immortal Crown for our selves? Tell me, ye stupid Chasers of the World, what ye aim at in all your Pretences? Ye that scoff at Heaven, and make Divinity a Garment for Unrighteousness? That with the Pharisee, embrace Formality for your Religion, and make an external Piety your Duty?
V. ALAS, Heaven is not gain'd by pious Fraudulency, gilded Crimes, or fortunate Transgressions; nor the Eye of the Almigty to be deluded with a gaudy Zeal. 'Tis not a pretended Sanctity, that can invest us with Immortality; nor a modish Devotion only, that will conduct us to Heaven. How miserable is he who idolizes the World, and embraces that Religion, to neglect his Creator! Therefore let us make that inquest of the Voice within us, and then invoke the Almghty in these or the like Expressions.
VI. O GREAT Iehovah, what did'st thou bestow our Reason on us, but to diligently listen unto the Voice of thy Law, that the Celestial Rhetorick of thy Word, might at least attract from us an ignorant Profaneness? Shall Ethnicks, that had no other Scope, no other Recompence for their Sanctity, than some vain Applause, or the internal Triumphs of their Spirits, for their good Performances, outvie us in the Splendours of a Moral Life; and we that have sublimer and purer Hopes, be scarce Obedient for Thy sake? Shall they that are ignorant of Thee, be more passionately Just, than we that have traced out Heaven, and expect Eternity to succeed?
VII. THOUGH it was not in Man's Power to find Thee, till Thou did'st reveal Thy Self in a Crucify'd Jesus; yet now having so richly, and in that Plenitude expressed to us the Treasures of Thy Love, shall we not be excited to perform something for Thy Glory? Incite us, we beseech Thee, to consider well the Advantages that are in Thy Service, the Felicity that accompanies Obedience, and thae Crown which is the Recompence of Faith; that so our Affections being mortified unto these fading Objects here Below, they may be enliven'd only with Desires after those Eternal Excellencies that are in Thee, in Thy Heavenly Kingdom.