The Christian Life, Preface
THE PREFACE.
I SHALL not trouble the Reader with a long Apology for the Publication of the ensuing Treatise, though I might plead (as other Authors do) the Importunity of Friends, whose Judgments I very much reverence. For, to say the Truth, I do by no means think that in an Affair of this Nature it is safe or fit for a man to be over-born by the persuasions of those whose Judgments he hath just cause to suspect may be brib'd by their Friendships. And therefore had I not hop'd that in such an Age as this, (wherein through our own Divisions and Debaucheries, both in Opinion and Practice, and the hellish Contrivances of our Enemies, we have such a dismal Prospect of things before us) these Papers might be of some Vse to Religion and the Souls of men, I would never have troubled the World with them; but hoping they might, I have ventured upon that reason to publish them.
I HAVE for some years been a sorrowful Spectator of the black Cloud that is gathering over my Native Country, and I must confess have not been without my share of the Fears and Anxieties of the Age; but being at last quite sick of looking downwards upon this uncomfortable Scene of things, I had no other way to relieve my oppressed Thoughts but to raise them above this miserable World, and entertain them with the Comforts of Religion, and the Hopes of a better State beyond the Grave; wherein, I thank God, I have found such Rest and Satisfaction of Mind as render'd my blackest Apprehensions of the ensuing Storm very tolerable. And now because I would not eat my Morsel alone, and injoy my Satisfaction to my self, I have indeavour'd by this following Treatise of Heaven, and the Way thither, to break and distribute it among my distressed Neighbours; that so by carrying their Minds from these dismal Expectations into the quiet and happy Regions above, and directing their Lives and Actions thither, I may communicate to them the blessed Art how to live happily in a distracted World. And methinks, when our present State is so perplext and uncertain, we should be more than ordinarily concerned to make sure of something, and to provide for a future Well-being, that so we may not be miserable in both Worlds.
As for the Argument I have undertaken, I may without breach of Modesty say, it is a great and a noble one; it is the Christian Life, which next to the Angelical approaches nearest to the Life of God. But as for the Management of it, all that I can say is this, I have imploy'd my best Thoughts and Skill about it; and if, after this, I have any where wronged or misrepresented it, it is more my Vnhappiness than my Fault. Perhaps it may be thought that in the first three Chapters I have discours'd more speculatively, than 'tis fit in a Book that is design'd for common Use and Edification; but it may be when the Reader hath considered the Nature of the Arguments I have there handled, and how necessarily they fall in with my Design, he will be convinc'd that 'twas unavoidable. And yet I doubt not but with a little Diligence and Attention of mind the plainest Reader may be able to comprehend the main Reason and Evidence of what I drive at.
IN the first place I thought 'twould be necessary in treating of the Christian Life, to give some Account of the blessed End it refers to, that so from the Nature of that, we might be the better able to judg of the Necessity and Vsefulness of those Means which Christianity prescribes in order to it. And this I have indeavoured in the first Chapter; where I have only so far explained the Nature of the heavenly State and Felicities, as was necessary to light and conduct us through the ensuing Design.
In the second place I judg'd it would be no less expedient to give some general Account of what kinds of Means are necessary to our obtaining this End; that so we might be convinc'd how requisite both the principal and instrumental Parts of the Christian Life are to our everlasting Happiness. And this I have attempted in the second Chapter; wherein from the Consideration of the vast Distance there is between the pure and blessed State of Heaven, and this corrupt and degenerate State of Human Nature, I have indeavoured to shew that 'tis not only necessary for us to practise and acquire those Christian Vertues in the perfection whereof the heavenly Bliss consists, but that to inable us to practise, acquire and improve them, there are sundry other instrumental Duties indispensably necessary; which Duties, as I have there proved, are of no other Vse or Significancy in Religion, than as they are Means of Vertue and Piety.
AND having thus distributed the Means into their proper Kinds and Order, I have in the third Chapter treated largely of the first Kind, to wit, the Practice of the Christian Vertues; in which I confess I have neither handled the particular Vertues in their full Extent and Latitude, nor inforc'd them with all their moral Reasons; that being done already to excellent purpose in those two incomparable Treatises of Holy Living and Dying, and of the whole Duty of Man. Nor could I have done it without swelling this Discourse, which is large enough already, into a Volume too large for common Use. And indeed all that was necessary to my Purpose, was only so far to explain the Nature of each particular Vertue as that the Reader might thereby understand what is meant by them; but that which most concern'd me in pursuance of my main Design, was to prove that the Practice of every Vertue is an essential Part of the Christian Life, and a necessary Means to the blessed End of it. And accordingly, as I have shewn from the express Commands of our Religion our indispensible Obligation to practise every Vertue; so I have indeavoured to shew how in the Practice of it we do naturally grow up to the heavenly State, as, on the contrary, how in the course of a sinful Life we do by a necessary Efficiency gradually sink our selves into the State of the Damned. For I have proved at large, that there is something of Heaven and Hell in the very Nature of each particular Virtue and Vice, and that in the perfection of these two opposite Qualities consists the main Happiness and Misery of those two opposite States. From whence it will necessarily follow, that as in the Practice of the one or t'other we grow more virtuous or vicious, so proportionably we rise up towards Heaven or sink down towards Hell by a fatal Tendency of Nature. The Truth of which is not only acknowledged by the generality of Christian Writers, but also by the best and wisest of the Heathen Philosophers; though this, I think, is the first Attempt that hath been made to derive the Heavenly and the Hellish States from the nature of the particular Virtues and Vices. I pray God that what I have said may but ingage some more skilful Pen in the Prosecution of this noble Argument. For I know nothing in the World that can be more effectual to ingage men to be substantially Religious, to take them off from Hypocrisie and Formality, from all presumptuous Hopes and false Dependencies, than their being throughly convinc'd of this Truth, that the eternal Happiness or Misery of Souls is founded in their Vertue or Vice, and that there is as inseparable a Connexion between Grace and Glory, Sin and Hell, as there is between Fire and Heat, Frost and Cold, or any other necessary Cause and its Effect. For if they were but throughly persuaded of this, they would easily discern what wretched Non-sense it is, to think of going to Heaven or escaping Hell whilst they continue in any wilful Course of Disobedience to the Laws of Vertue.
HAVING thus treated at large of the first Sort of Means by which the End of our Christian Life is to be obtained, I proceed in the fourth Chapter, which is the largest of all, to give an Account of the second, viz. the Instrumental Duties of Christianity, which are injoin'd us as Means subservient to our Practice, Acquisition and Improvement of those Heavenly Vertues in the perfection whereof our Chief Happiness consists. And for the more distinct handling of these, I have considered men under a Threefold State with respect to the Christian Life; First, as entering into it; Secondly, as actually ingaged in it; Thirdly, as perfecting and improving themselves by Perseverance in it; to each of which I have appropriated such of the instrumental Duties as I conceived did more especially belong to them. 'Tis true, some of the Duties here treated of, are not purely instrumental, but of a mixt Nature, such as Faith, Prayer, actual Dedication of our good Works to God, &c. which are essential Parts of Divine Worship, and, as such, do belong to those Divine Vertues the Perfection wherof makes a Principal Part of the everlasting Happiness of Souls. But here I have considered them only as Means and Instruments in the Use of which we are to acquire and perfect those Beatifical Vertues. And of this sort of Means I do not remember any one Particular recommended in holy Scripture, but what hath been here treated of. Upon some indeed I have insisted much more briefly, than upon others, because I find them already largely accounted for in other practical Books, and especially in those two excellent Treatises above-named; but of those which they either cursorily touch, or take no notice at all, I thought my self obliged to give a larger Account.
FROM the whole I would recommend to the pious Reader the Consideration of the admirable Structure and Contrivance of the Practical Part of Christianity, which having proposed to us an End so great and sublime, and so highly worthy of our most vigorous prosecutions, hath also furnish'd us with such choice and effectual Means of all sorts to attain it. The consideration of which would be in itself a great Inducement to me to believe Christianity a Divine Religion, though I were utterly unacquainted with its External Evidence and Motives of Credibility. For it can never enter into my Head that such a rare and exquisite Contrivance to make men good and happy, could ever owe its Original to the mere invention of a Carpenters Son, and a company of illiterate Fishermen. Especially considering how far it excels the Moral Precepts even of those divine Philosophers who believ'd the future State of a blessed Immortality, and exerciz'd their best Wit in prescribing Rules to guide and direct men thither.
AND having given this large Account of the instrumental Duties of the Christian Life, and also inforc'd the several Divisions of them with proper Arguments and Motives, I thought fit to add a fifth Chapter, wherein I have given some Rules for the more profitable reading of this practical Discourse, and also some general Directions for the Exercise of our private Religion in all the different States of the Christian Life, together with certain Forms of private Devotion fitted for each State. In which I have supposed, what I doubt is a very deplorable Truth, viz. that the Generality of Christians after their Initiation by Baptism into the Publick profession of Christianity, are so unhappy as to be seduc'd either through bad Example or Education into a vicious State of Life; and that consequently from thence they must take their first start into the through Practice of Christianity. Not that I make the least doubt, but that there are a great many excellent Christians, who by the Blessing of God upon their pious Education, have been secur'd from this Calamity, and trained up from their Infancy under a prevailing Sense of God and Religion; and therefore for such as these, as there is no need of that solemn method of Repentance prescribed in the first Section of the fourth Chapter, so neither is there of those first penitential Prayers in this fifth Chapter, which are accomodated to that State. For these persons have long since been actually ingaged in the Christian Life, and, as 'tis to be supposed, have made considerable Improvements in it, and therefore as they are only concerned in the Duties of the second and third States of the Christian Life, so they are only to use the Prayers which are fitted to those States, which with some variation of those phrases which suppose the past Course of our Life to have been vicious, they may easily accommodate to their own Condition. But the Design of this Discourse is not only to conduct them onwards in their Way who have already entered upon the Christian Life, but also to reduce those to it, who have been so unhappy as to wander into vicious Courses; or rather, though it serves both Purposes, 'tis wholly designed for the same persons, viz. to seek and bring back those lost Sheep who have straid from the Paths of Christian Piety and Vertue, and then to lead them on through all the intermediate Stages to the happy State of immortal Pleasures at the end of them. And now if what hath been said should, by the Blessing of God, obtain its designed Effect upon any person, I ask no other Requital for all the Pains it hath cost me, but his earnest Prayers to God for me, that after my best Endeavours to guide and direct him to Heaven, I may not fall short of it my self.