The Christian Life, Chapter 4 · Section 4
SECT. IV. Containing certain Motives to animate men against the Difficulty of these Duties which appertain to the Course of our Christian Warfare.
HOW necessary and useful to us those aforenamed Duties are, in the Course of our Christian Warfare, hath been sufficiently shewn. So that now there is nothing that our Sloth and Vnwillingness can object against them, but only this, that they are very difficult, and do require more of our Time and Care and Pains than we can conveniently spare from our other necessary Occasions; that the Practice of them is so unpleasant and severe, and attended with so much Cumber and Trouble, that we very much doubt we shall never be able to go through with them. And therefore to remove this Objection out of mens way, and to excite them to the Practice of these necessary Duties, I shall for a Conclusion of this Argument add, to what hath been said of it, these following Considerations.
1. That whatsoever Difficulty there is in the Practice of them, we may thank our selves for it.
2. That in the Course of our Sin there is a great deal of Difficulty, as well as in our Warfare against it.
3. That how difficult soever this Warfare may be, it must be indured, or that which is a great deal worse.
4. That though it be difficult, yet there is nothing in it but what the Grace of God will render possible to us, if we be not wanting to our selves.
5. That the Practice of these Duties is not so difficult, but that it is fairly consistent with all our other necessary Occasions and Diversions.
6. That the Difficulty of them is such as will certainly abate and wear off by Degrees, if we constantly practice them.
7. That with the difficulty of them there is a World of present Peace and Satisfaction intermingled.
8. That their Difficulty is abundantly compensated by the final Reward of them.
I. CONSIDER that whatsoever Difficulty there is in the Practice of them, we may thank our selves for it. For if we had betaken our selves to the Practice of Religion as soon as we were capable of it, before we had entered our selves into sinful Courses, and had therein contracted sinful Habits and Inclinations, we might have prevented those Difficulties which we now complain of. For our Religion was made for and adapted to our Nature, and would have sweetly accorded with all its Affections and Propensions, had we not vitiated them by our own wilful Sin, and clapt a preternatural Biass upon them. But though the Light be naturally congruous to the Eye, yet if through a Distillation of ill Humours into it the Eye grow sore and weak, there is nothing more grievous and offensive to it. And so it is with Religion, which to the pure and uncontaminated Nature of a Man, is the most grateful and aggreeable thing in the World; but if by our own ill Government we disease our Nature, and deprave its primitive Constitution, it is no wonder that Religion which was so well proportioned to it in its Purity, should sit hard and uneasie upon it, in its Apostacy and Corruption. For to a man that is in a Feaver, every thing is bitter, even Honey, which when he is well, is exceeding sweet and grateful; but the Bitterness which he tasts is not in the Honey but in the Gall which overflows his own Palate; and so to a Nature that is diseased with any unnatural Lust, that which is most congruous to it self, will be most nauseous to its Disease; and those Duties which in its Health 'twould have imbraced with the greatest Pleasure, will in its Sickness be the greatest Burthen and Oppression to it. And when we have spoiled the Purity of our Constitution, and are degenerated from the humane Nature into the brutal or diabolical one, it is no great wonder that the Religion of a Man should be a Burthen to the Nature of a Beast or a Devil. So that whatsoever Difficulties there are in Religion, they arise not out of the Nature of the things it requires, but out of the perverse Indispositions of our Natures to them; and these were for the most part contracted by our selves; so that instead of complaining of the Difficulty, we ought to strive and contend the more earnestly against it, because we may thank our selves for it. When a man hath plaid the Fool, and set his House on Fire, the Sense of his own Folly ought to make him more industrious to extinguish it; but if instead of so doing, he should sit with his Hands in his Bosom and complain of the Mischief, and the Difficulty of stopping it, what would Folks say of him? Mischievous, doth it become thee to sit here idely complaining of the Effect of thy own Villany, whilst 'tis yet in thy Power, wouldst thou but bestir thy self, to quench the Flame, and prevent the spreading of it? For shame get up and do thy utmost Endeavour to repair thy own Act, and to extinguish this spreading Mischief of which thou art the Author. Since therefore we have been so obstinately foolish as to set fire to our own Souls, and kindle in them by our vicious Courses such destructive Flames of unnatural Lust, how monstrously ridiculous is it, whilst 'tis yet in our Power to extinguish them, to sit whining and complaining of the Difficulty of it, and in the mean time permit them to rage and burn on without Interruption? O miserable men, if they are so hard to be quench'd, who may ye thank for it? Was it not you that kindled them, and do you now sit idly complaining of your own Act, when you should be the more industrious to repair the Mischief of it, because it is your own. For shame arise and bestir your selves, and since you are conscious that the Difficulties of your Religion are of your own creating, and that those Lusts which indispose ye to it are the products of your own Actions, let this excite ye to a more vigorous Endeavour to subdue and conquer them.
II. CONSIDER that in the Course of your Sins there is a great deal of Difficulty, as well as in your Warfare against them. For I dare appeal to your own Experience whether you have not found a great deal of Hardship in Wickedness, especially while you were educating and training up your Natures to it? Did not your Nature oftentimes recoil and start and boggle at your vicious Actions; and were you not fain sometimes to curb, and sometimes to spur it, to commit many Outrages and Violences upon it, whilst you were backing and managing it, before you could reduce it to a Through-pace in Iniquity? How often have you put your modest Nature to the Blush, at the sense of a filthy and uncomly Action, whilst your wicked Will hath been dragging it along like a timorous Virgin to an Adulterers Bed; and what terrible Shreiks have your Consciences many times given in the midst of your sinful Commissions, when you were acting the first Rapes upon your Innocence? How many a pensive Mood hath the Review of your sinful Pleasures cost ye, and what Swarms of Horror and dreadful Expectation hath the Reflection on your past Guilts raised in your Minds? And then with what excessive Difficulty have you been fain to practise some Vices, only to get an Habit of practising them more easily? How often have you been forced to swallow Sickness, to drink dead Palsies and foaming Epilepsies, to render your Intemperances familiar to you, and in what Qualms and fainting sweats, and sottish Confusions have you many times awaked, before ever you could Connaturalize your midnight Revels to your Temper? And when with so much Labour and Violence, you have pretty well trained and exercised your selves in this hellish Warfare, and thereby rendered it natural and habitual to you, to how many Inconveniences hath it daily exposed you, & what base and unmanly Shifts hath it put you upon, to extricate your selves out of those Difficulties wherein it hath involved you? What violent Passions and Perturbations doth it raise in your Minds, and into what wild Tumults of Action doth it frequently hurry you? In a word, how doth it perplex and intrigue the whole Course of your Lives, and intangle ye in a labyrinth of Knavish Tricks and Collusions; so that many times you are at your Wits end, and know not which way to turn your selves? All these Difficulties, and a great many more, which I cannot presently think of, you must have contended with in a sinful Course of Action, if you have made any considerable Experiment of it.
AND do you complain of the Difficulty of persevering in Religion; you that have so couragiously persevered in a worse Way against Difficulties that are as great, all things considered, if not greater; you that have hitherto sin'd on so industriously, that have broke through so many strong Barricadoes to come at and injoy your Lusts, are you not ashamed to start and boggle as you do, at the Difficulties of Virtue and Religion? Look but how the industrious Sinner upbraids you? His way leads directly to Ruine, and he knows it, and yet he presses on couragiously, as if he were ambitious to be a Heroe in Iniquity, and charges through all the modesty of Humane Nature, through all his native sense of a God and a divine Vengeance; he marches forward through Infamy and Diseases, Dangers and a world of Inconveniences, and offers a kind of Violence to Hell, as if he meant to force open its brazen Portal, and enter headlong into it before 'tis ready to receive him, whilst you in the mean time like a company of Crest-faln Creatures, stand shivering at a few trifling Difficulties in your Way, though you have Heaven for your End, and a Crown of Glory for your Reward.
IN short therefore, this is the true State of your Case; choose which side you please, whether to march under Christs or the Devils Banner; you must expect before-hand to encounter some Difficulties, yea and perhaps as great on the one side as on the other; and if so, then you have little else to do but to compare their Ends, and to consider which of the two is most eligible, a Crown of Glory, or eternal Torment.
III. CONSIDER that how Difficult soever this your spiritual Warfare may be, it must be indured, or that which is much more intollerable. I confess were it not absolutely necessary, we might with some colour of Reason urge the Difficulty of it, to excuse our selves from undertaking and prosecuting it; but when our Case is such, as that we must either conquer or perish, swim through, or sink under the Difficulties we complain of, the matter will admit of no further Debate, but we must e'en resolve of the two Evils to choose that which is the least. When the Ship hath sprung a Leak, 'tis a Madness for the Mariners to sit still and complain of the Pains and Labour of pumping; for in the Extremity they are in, there is no more to be said, they must pump or perish, and it is not to be debated where there is so vast an Inequality between the Objects of their Choice, which of the two they were best to fix upon, whether to take pains for the present to secure the Ship, or to sit still and suffer themselves to be swallowed up in the Ocean. And thus it is in the Case before us; our Soul hath sprung a Leak, and let into its Holds those Stygian Waters of sensual and Diabolical Lust, which will sink us down to Hell if they be not pump'd out again; and this is not to be done without a great deal of Labour and Difficulty. But what then; were we not better labour for a while then perish for ever? do we talk of Labour when our Souls are at stake, and our immortal Life is upon the Brink of an everlasting well or ill-being? In other Cases we never think much to indure a present Inconvenience for the Prevention of a future Mischief; we are content to fast, when we perceive it's necessary to obviat an approaching Feaver, to be cupp'd and scarrified with all the Artifice of Pain to prevent or remove a dangerous Disease; and in all other Cases are generally willing to prolong our Torment that we may be the longer a dying; except where the Prescription is Virtue, and the Death prescribed against is eternal; though this be the most formidable Mischief of all, as being the utmost Consummation of humane Misery, and compared with which all the Labours and Difficulties of Religion have not the Proportion of a gentle Flea-biting to the acutest Torments of the Rack or Stone. For I beseech you to consider, will it not be easier for you to indure the short Agonies of a bitter Repentance, than the horrid Despair of a damned Ghost for ever; to thwart a foolish and unreasonable Lust, than to lye roaring to Eternity upon the Rack of a guilty Conscience? Is there any Proportion between your abstaining from the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a moment, and your being excluded from Heaven and all Hope of Happiness for ever? Alass! if it be so difficult to you to contend with an evil Habit, to struggle with a stiff and obstinate Inclination, how difficult will it be to dwell with everlasting burnings, and suffer the dire Effects of an unappeasable Vengeance to Eternity? Wherefore since we are under an absolute Necessity of induring the one or th'other, in the name of God let us act like Men, and of the two evils choose that which is most tollerable.
IV. CONSIDER that though it be difficult, yet there is nothing in it but what the Grace of God will render possible to us, if we be not wanting to our selves. I confess the Necessity of it would be no Argument to ingage us to undertake it, were it not a possible Undertaking; yea, and readily acknowledge, that it very far exceeds our poor Possibility singly and nakedly considered. So that if we were left to struggle with the Difficulty of it in our own single Strength, we might justly despair of Success, and so tamely lye down and yield our selves foil'd and defeated. But God be praised this is not our Case; for though when we cast our eyes upon the many violent Inclinations to evil that are within us, and upon the numberless Temptations to evil that are about us; when we seriously reflect upon the Weakness of our Reason, and the Strength of our Lust, and the Number and Nearness and Prevalency of those Objects from without that are continually pressing upon and assaulting our good Resolutions; though, I say, when we reflect upon all this, we are ready to cry out as Elisha's Servant did when he beheld the City compassed with Horses and with Chariots, Alas, Master, how shall we do? how shall we be able to withstand all this mighty Army of Enemies? yet if we turn our Eyes from our own Weakness, and our Enemies Strength to those gracious Promises of Assistance which the Father of Mercies hath made to us, we shall quickly be able to answer our selves, as Elisha did him, fear not, O my Soul, for they that are with us, are more, and more powerful, than they that are against us. For we have with us not only the outward Arguments of Religion, which are of infinitely more Force than any outward Inducement to Vice whatsoever; we have with us not only the holy Angels of God, who are as willing and more able to direct and strengthen us, than all the infernal Furies to insnare and captivate us; but we have with us also the Almighty Spirit of God, who by the Oeconomy of Heaven, and the Promise of our Lord, is obliged to minister to us in all our Necessities, and to aid and assist us against all those Difficulties which would be otherwise too hard for us, if we were left to our selves. So that if we do but hold true to our own Interest, and take care that we do not drive him away from us, by siding wilfully with our Enemies against him, we shall not, no we cannot miscarry; unless (which is impossible) some such Temptation should befal us, as neither we nor he can resist and cope with. For till by our wilful Sin we have forfeited our Title to the promise of his Assistance, we are as sure of his Help in all things that are necessary, as we can be of our own Endeavour; and 'tis not more in our power to do what we can by the Strength of our own Faculties, than 'tis to ingage him to inable us to do what we cannot with his Aid and Assistance. For by faithfully indeavouring to persevere in wel-doing, we intitle our selves to all the necessary Assistances of his Grace, and so long as this Title continues, we are Masters not only of our own Strength but of his too, and can do not only whatsoever is within our own Power without him, but also whatsoever is in his Power concurring with ours.
SO that though our Warfare be difficult, it cannot be impossible, unless we will have it so. For to be sure there is nothing in it that can be too hard for Gods Grace co-operating with the Powers of our Nature; and therefore there can be nothing in it too hard for us, whilst 'tis in our Power to secure our selves of that his gracious Co-operation.
WHEREFORE let us stand boggling no longer at the Difficulty of our Progress in Religion, since God be praised, there is nothing required of us beyond what we are able; do you but your Part which is only what you can, and then doubt not but God will do his; put forth but your honest, hearty Endeavour, and earnestly implore his Aid and Assistance, and if then you miscarry, let Heaven answer for it. But if upon a Pretence that your Work is too difficult, and your Enemies too mighty for you, you lay down your Arms and resolve to contend with them no longer, let Heaven and Earth judg between God and you, which is to be charged with your ruine; God, that so graciously offer'd you his Help, that stretch'd out his Hand to raise ye up, tenderd you his spirit to guard and conduct ye through all Oppositions to eternal Happiness, or you, that would not be persuaded to do any thing for your selves, but rather chose to perish with Ease, than take any Pains to be saved.
V. CONSIDER that the Practice of these Duties is not so difficult, but that it is fairly consistent with all your other necessary Occasions. When men are told how many Duties are necessary to their successful Progress in Religion, what Patience and Constancy, what frequent Examinations and Tryals of themselves, what lively Thoughts and Expectations of Heaven, &c. they are apt to conclude that if they should ingage to do all this, they must resolve to do nothing else, but even shake hands with all their secular Business and Diversions, and Cloister up themselves from all other Affairs. Which is a very great Mistake, proceeding either from their not considering, or not understanding the nature of these religious Exercises, the greatest part of which are such as are to be wholly transacted in the Mind, whose Motions and Operations are much more nimble and expedite than those of the Body, and so may be very well intermixt with our secular Employments, withour any Let or Hindrance to them. For what great Time is there required for a man now and then to revolve a few wise and useful Thoughts in his Mind, to consider the Nature of an Action when it occurs, and reflect upon an Error when it's past and hath escap'd him? I can consider a Temptation when it's approaching me, and with a Thought or two of Heaven or Hell arm my Resolution against it in the twinkling of an eye; I can look up to Heaven with an eye of earnest Expectance, and send my Soul thither in a short Ejaculation without interrupting my Business; and yet these, and such as these, do make up a great Part of those religious Exercises wherein the proper Duty of our Christian Warfare consists. And though to the due performance of these Duties, it will be sometimes necessary that our Minds should dwell longer upon them, yet it is to be considered that when once we are entered upon the Practice of them, our Mind will be much more at Leisure to attend to them; for then 'twill be in a great measure taken off from its wild and unreasonable Vagaries, from its sinful Designs and lewd Contrivances, from its Phantastick Complacencies in the Pleasures of Sin and anxious Reflections on the Guilt and Danger of it; and when all this Rubbish is thrown out of the Mind, there will be Room enough for good Thoughts to dwell in it, without interfering with any of our necessary Cares and Diversions. For would we but give these our religious Exercises as much Room in our Minds as we did heretofore freely allow to our Sins; they would ask no more, but leave us as much at Leisure for our other Affairs as ever.
I confess there are some of these Duties that exact of us their fixt and stated Portions of Time, such as our Morning Consideration and Prayer, our Evening Examination and Prayer, our religious Observation of the Lords Day, and our preparing for and receiving the Holy Sacrament; but all this may be very well spared without any Prejudice to any of our lawful Occasions. For what great matter of Time doth it ask for a man to think over a few good Thoughts in the Morning, and fore-arm his Mind with them against the Temptations of the Day; to recommend himself to God in a short, pithy and affectionate Prayer, and repeat his Purpose and Resolution of Obedience; what an easie matter were it for you to borrow so many Moments as would suffice for this Purpose from your Bed and your Comb and Looking-glass? And as for the Evening, when your Business is over, it's a very hard case if you cannot spare so much time either from your Company or Refreshments as to make a short Review of the Actions of the Day; to confess and beg Pardon for the Evils you have faln into, or to bless God for the Good you have done, and the Evils you have avoided; and then to recommend your selves to his Grace and Protection for the future. And as for your religious Observation of the Lords Day, it is only the seventh Part of your Time; and can you think much to devote that, or at least the greatest Part of that, to him who gives you your Being and Duration? And lastly, as for your receiving the Lords Supper, 'tis at most but once a Month that you are invited to it, and 'tis a hard Case, if out of so great a proportion of Time you cannot afford a few Hours to examine your Defects and to quicken your Graces, and to dress and prePare your selves for that blessed Commemoration. Alass! how easie were all this to a willing Mind? and if we had but half that Concern for our Souls and everlasting Interest that we have for our Bodies, we should count such things as these not worth our mentioning. How disingenuous therefore is it for men to make such tragical Out-cries as they do of the Hardship and Difficulty of this spiritual Warfare, when there is nothing at all in it that intrenches either on their secular Callings or necessary Diversions; when they may be going onward to Heaven while they are doing their Business, and mortifying their Lusts even in the Enjoyment of their Recreations, and so take their Pleasure both here and hereafter?
VI. CONSIDER that the Difficulty of these Duties is such, as will certainly abate and wear off by Degrees, if we constantly practise them. For in all Undertakings whatsoever, it is Vse that makes Perfectness, and that which is exceeding hard to us at first, either through want of Skill to manage, or Inclination to practise it, will by degrees grow easier and easier, as we are more and more accustomed and familiarized to it. And this we shall find by Experience, if we constantly exercise our selves in these progressive Duties of our Religion, which to a Mind that hath been altogether unacquainted with them, will at first be very difficult. 'Twill go against the grain of a wild and ungoverned Nature, to be confined from its extravagant Ranges by the strict Ties of a religious Discipline; and to reduce a roving Mind to severe Consideration, or a fickle one to Constancy and Resolution, or an unreflecting one to Self-examination; to raise up an earthly Mind to heavenly Thoughts and Expectations; and confine a listless and regardless one to strict Watchfulness and Circumspection; to confine a carnal mind to frequent Sacraments; or an indevout and careless one to its daily and weekly periods of Devotion, will at the first no doubt be very painful and tedious; but after we have persisted in and for a while accustomed our selves to it, we shall find it will quickly grow more natural and easie to us, and from being grievous it will become tolerable, from being tolerable easie, and from being easie delightful. For when once we come to feel the good Effects of those Duties in our Natures, how fast our Lusts do decline, our Dispositions mend and all our Graces improve in the Use of them, the Sense of this will mightily indear and ingratiate them to us. Just as it is with a Scholar, when he first enters upon the Methods of Learning, they are very tedious and irksome to him; the Pains of reading, observing and recollecting, the Confinement to a Study and the racking his Brains with severe Reasoning and Discourse, are things that he cannot easily away with, till he hath been inured and accustomed to them a while, and then they grow more natural and easie to him; but when he comes to be sensible of the great Advantages he reaps by his Labour, how it raises and improves his Understanding, inlarges its prospect and furnishes its Conception with brave and useful. Notions; then do his Labours which were formerly so grievous become not only easie but delectable to him. And even so it is with these spiritual Exercises of Religion, which to unexperienced persons that are yet but newly enter'd upon them will be very painful and troublesome; but if they have but Patience and Courage to hold on, Custom will quickly render them more tolerable, and when they have practised them so long as to find and perceive the blessed Effects of them, how much they have contributed to the reforming their Tempers, reducing their Inclinations, filing and polishing their rough and mishapen Natures; with what amiable Graces, divine and godlike Dispositions they have adorned and beautified them; their Sense and Feeling of this will convert them all into delightful Recreations. Thus as the Custom of them will render them easie, so the blessed Fruits of them will make them delectable; the former will render them facil as Nature, the later eligible as Reward. And if so, why should we be discouraged, faint-hearted Creatures that we are, at those little present Difficulties, which our Diligence will soon wear off and convert into Ease and Pleasure?
VII. CONSIDER that with the Difficulty of them, there is a world of present Peace and Satisfaction intermingled. If you fall back again to your old Lusts, instead of these present Difficulties you start at, you must expect to have the Trouble of a guilty Soul to contend with; which, if you have any sense of God and of Good and Evil, will be much more grievous to you than they. But if you go on, you will carry with you a quiet and a satisfied Mind, a Conscience that will entertain you all along with such sweet and calm Reflections as will abundantly compensate you for all the Hardships and Difficulties you encounter on the way; that with innumerable Iterations will be always resounding to your honest Endeavours those best and sweetest Ecchoes, Well done good and profitable servant, how bravely hast thou acquitted thy self, how manfully hast thou stood to thy Duty against all Oppositions, and with what a Gallant Resolution hast thou repulsed those Temptations that bore up against thee? Now for a man to have his own Mind continually applauding him and crowning his Actions with the Approbations of his Conscience, is Encouragement enough to ballance a thousand Difficulties; and the Sense that he hath done his Duty, and that the God above, and the Vice-god within him, are both satisfied and pleased with him, will give him such a grateful Relish of each Action of his Warfare, that the Difficulty will only serve to inhance the Pleasure of it.
AND as he will have great Peace and Satisfaction whilst he is contending with these Difficulties, so when he hath so far conquered them as that they are no longer able to curb and with-hold him from the free and vigorous Exercise of the heavenly Vertues, but in despight of them he can easily moderate his Passions and Appetites by the Laws of his Reason, and freely love, adore and imitate, submit to and confide in the ever blessed God, and chearfully exert an unforced Plainess and Simplicity, Good-will and Charity, Submission and Condescension, Peace and Concord towards all men; when, I say, he hath so far surmounted the Difficulties of his Warfare, as that with any Measure of Freedom and Vigor he can put forth all these heavenly Vertues, he will find himself not only in a quiet, but in a heavenly Condition. For these heavenly Graces are the Palat by which the immortal Mind tasts and relishes its Heaven, the blessed Organs and Sensories by which it feels and perceives the Joys of the World to come, and without which it can no more relish and injoy them, than the senseless Hive can the sweetness of the Honey that is in it. And consequently the more quick and vivacious these heavenly Organs of the Mind are, and the more they are disburthened of those carnal and devilish Lusts that blunt their Sense and Perception, the more accurately they will, taste the Joys and Pleasures of Heaven. So that when by the constant Practice of the warfaring Duties of Religion, we have conquered those bad Inclinations of our Natures, which render the heavenly Vertues so difficult to us, and do so clog and incumber us in the Exercise of them, we shall find our selves in a Heaven upon Earth, and each Act of Vertue will be Presention and Foretast of the Joys of a celestial Life. And being arrived at this blessed State in which all heavenly Vertue is so connaturalized to us, the sweet Experience we shall have of the unspeakable Joys and Pleasures it abounds with, will cause us to look back with wondrous Content and Satisfaction upon all those Difficulties we contended with in our Way to it, and bless those Prayers and Tears, and Strivings with our selves, those tedious Watchings and Self-exáminations, &c. by which we have now at last conquered and subdued them.
WHEREFORE since the Practice of these our warfaring Duties hath so much present Peace going along with it, and since by its natural Drift and Tendency it's leading us forward to a State of so much Pleasure and Satisfaction, what a Madness is it, for a man to be beaten off from it, by those present little Difficulties that attend it! What man that consults his own Interest would ever desist from the prosecuting such a gainful Warfare, in which to make him amends for the present Pains it puts him to, he is not only possest of Peace of Conscience for the present, but assured of a happy Life for the future, when he hath conquered the Difficulties he contends with.
VIII. CONSIDER that the Difficulty of these Duties is abundantly compensated by the Reward of them. A generous Mind will think no Means too hard which tend to noble and worthy Ends; in the prosecution of which Opposition only whets its Courage and Resolution. So that doubtless had we any Spark of Generosity in us, the Vastness and Excellency of the End we pursue, would make us despise all Difficulties in the Way to it. What a Meanness of Spirit therefore doth it argue in us to stand boggling, as we do, at the Difficulties of Religion; to think much of spending a few Days or Years in this World in striving and contending with our Inclinations, in Consideration and Watchfulness, in earnest Prayer and severe Reflections on our selves, when we are assured before-hand that at the Conclusion of this short Conflict we shall be carried off by Angels in Triumph to Heaven, and there receive from the Captain of our Salvation a Crown of everlasting Joys and Pleasures; when after a few Moments Pains and Labour, we shall live Millions of Millions of most happy Ages in the ravishing Fruition of a boundless Good, and after these are expired have as many Millions of Millions more to live. What an unconscionable thing is it for us to complain of any Difficulty, who have such a vast Recompence of Reward in our View? In the name of God, Sirs, what would you have? Why we would have Heaven drop down into our Mouths, and not put us to all this Trouble of reaching and climbing after it. Would you so? 'tis a very modest Desire indeed; that is, you would have the God of Heaven thrust his Favours upon you while you scorn and despise them, and prostitute his Heaven to a company of Drones that don't think it worth their while to go out of their Hives to gather it. O! for Shame look once more upon Heaven, and consider again what it is to dwell in the Paradise of the World with God and Angels and Saints, and in their blessed Company to live out an Eternity in the most rapturous Contemplations and Loves and Joys; to bath our dilated Faculties in an everflowing River of Pleasures, and in perfect Ease, Health and Vigor of Mind to feed upon a Happiness that is as large as our Capacities and as lasting as our Beings. Is this a Reward of that inconsiderable nature, that we should think much to labour and contend for it; is not the Hope of being satisfied for ever, a sufficient Encouragement to induce us to deny our Lusts and Appetites a few Moments, or is there not good enough in an everlasting Rest, to countervail a few Days and Years Labour and Contention? What though you pant and labour now while you are climbing the everlasting Hills, God be praised 'tis not so far to the Top but that the pleasant Gales and glorious Prospects you shall everlastingly enjoy there, will so abundantly compensate for the Difficulty of the Ascent, that instead of complaining of it you will to eternal Ages reflect upon it with Pleasure and Delight. Wherefore when your Courage begins to shrink at the Difficulty of your Warfare, do but lift up your Eyes to the Recompence of Reward, and to be sure, if you have any Heart, that will inspire you with such a brave Resolution, as nothing will be too hard for but what is absolutely impossible. For how can we be disheartned at any superable Difficulty, so long as we are animated with this persuasion, that if we have our Fruit unto holiness, our End shall be everlasting Life?