1. OUR blessed Lord and Saviour who did no sin, and in whose mouth was no guile found, but fulfill'd all righteousness, was notwith­standing his innocence, numbred with trans­gressours, [Page 2] and sentenced as a malefactour; so impossible is it for the most spotless per­son to secure himself against the calumnies and detractions of an envious and malicious Enemy. That holy Religion, the propaga­tion of which, was the design of all his publique transactions, may justly complain that it is fallen under the same censure with its promoter; the reproaches of them that reproached him are fallen upon it, and it labours under the same contradiction of sinners.

2. 'Tis by some accounted an ingenious contrivance of policy, an artifice and strata­gem devised by wiser heads to awe the vul­gar and common herd of mankind to sub­jection: others allow it to be only a starch­ed piece of austerity and sour Stoicism; some again dishonour it as the product of pusilla­nimity, and the index of a cowardly and degenerous mind; or traduce it as an heresie pernicious to the welfare of the Nation where 'tis entertain'd; as if its genuine and natural effect were to foment sedition, and aggravate & heighten petty differences into the most violent and barbarous out­rages.

3. How far the exorbitancies of them who have been the most zealous preten­ders to advance Religion, have been con­tributary to the production of those noti­ons, concerning it, which are so derogatory from its excellence, and prejudicial to its progress, a little reflection will be too preg­nant an evidence; If we consider, how some have usurped its glorious Name to patronize Rebellion and Innovation, and Sainted themselves in the perpetration of the most flagitious acts both of Injustice and Impiety; as if the genius which at­tended Religion, instigated those which en­tertain'd it to the most hellish enterprizes, when on the contrary, it possesseth the minds of those which give up themselves to the manuduction thereof, with the most pure and peaceable Principles, and excites them to such sacred actions as are agree­able thereunto. And also, take notice, many have no better title to Religion then what they can challenge by vertue of an over eager opposition against a dis­senting Party, and have no arguments to evidence their Christianity, except their [Page 4] being Magisterial and Dogmatical in things controverted and adiaphorous, may pass for a demonstration of it, interesting them­selves no further in Religion then the stig­matizing those of a different perswasion, if in matter of opinion, with the brand of Heresie, if in practice, with the style of Superstition, accounting Satyrical invectives and passionate reflections to be instances of a religious zeal for God, which are but the demonstrations of their own folly and arrogance, vainly supposing their love to God can be no better way exprest, then in their doating upon their own Images, and execrating all such notions which do not correspond with those models and re­presentations of things their fancies have suggested to the.

4. 'Tis an intense and violent heat wherewith many contend against all rela­tive holiness, who may be justly suspected to be in the mean time destitute of all real inherent and personal. And others are too prone to fix the boundaries of Re­ligion, and circumscribe it with time and place, as if it had taken sanctuary in holy [Page 5] ground, and might not without a kind of sacriledge be imployed in secular af­fairs, and civil entercourse, and were on­ly to be the business of Canonical Hours, laid aside with their Sunday Suit, and adjourned until the Bells awaken'd them to a new fit of devotion.

5. Many who call themselves Sons of the Church, and by a subscription to her Articles honour themselves with the sir­name of Orthodox, are yet the pest and blemishes of it, and forfeit that worthy appellation, by holding the Truth in un­righteousness, living, as if the Commande­ments had no relation to the Creed, or by the belief of what is true they could satis­fie for what is evil; or as if he would accept (by way of commutation) of their good opinion of him, in lieu of Tempe­rance, Justice, and Obedience to him;

6. When true Religion labours under so many prejudices, from open and intestine Enemies, and from professed Friends, when the Author and Original of it, the Essente and Nature, the Effects and Designes are [Page 6] so generally misconstrued, abused and per­verted; the rectifying of mens mistakes concerning it, and the representing of it to them in its native and affecting form, will be a very probably method to prevail effectually upon them to entertain it; for till men are convinced of the excellency and advantages of Religion, and their minds rightly informed of the nature and importance of it, it is impossible to engage them to the exercise of those duties which it requires from them.

7. The Scope of the ensuing Discourse is to beget such apprehensions and senti­ments in the spirits of men concerning true Religion as are agreeable thereunto; and recommend it unto them upon such mo­tives as are sufficient in other cases to pro­cure acceptance. He that will give him­self the trouble of perusing these Papers, which have nothing in them worthy but what is reflected from their subject mat­ter and final design, and add thereunto his own meditations, shall not fail to find that Religion comprehendeth in it whatso­ever may make it eligible: The verities of [Page 7] it serve to render it acceptable to the stu­dies and contemplations of the severest reason, and of the most ingenious spirits. The advantages which are twisted with it may insinuate a liking of it in an avarici­ous nature; the peace and joy which ac­company it, are sufficient to indear it to such whom pleasures do so easily intangle. That real and solid honour from which 'tis impossible it should be abstracted, makes it a prize worthy the endeavours of the most ambitious person.

8. If any shall object, that by this Trea­tise, I put my Sithe into anothers Har­vest, and intrench upon their rights, who by their Sacerdotal Function are to admi­nister this Province: I reply, those Ha­rangues, Defences, and Celebrations of Religion which proceed from those which are ordained to such a purpose, lose much of their efficacy only because they are theirs, people generally suspecting they design their own Interest, and put a gloss upon their own Wares for the better put­ting [Page 8] them off, and worship this great Di­ana with respect to the silver shrines. But when such, the course of whose studies and imployments may be managed to a greater temporal advantage with the proscribing of Religion, shall maugre their own secu­lar concernments, seriously endeavour the propagation of it, their attempts upon the Laity (which title we may use, I hope, without offence) proceeding from persons of like passions and educations as themselves, may in probability be more successful, and their Arguments fall upon them in their full weight, as not being obnoxious to that suspicion of imposture and sophistry which their discourses are censured to be attended with, though never so nervous and apodi­ctical, whose honour and advantage seems to be closely riveted into the interest of Religion, which hath given occasion to some atheistical persons to name it the Holy Cheat; as if it were maintained in the world only to subserve to the ends of great­ness; but the vanity of this imputation shall be manifested in the succeeding Chapter.

1. REligion is of an heavenly descent; its extraction is from the Father of Eternity; it is not the revelation of flesh and blood, the spurious and adulterous issue of humane Intellectuals, the forgerie and imposture of the Nimrods and Machi­avilians of the world, to acquire grandure and authority by imposing upon the less wary and over credulous natures of vulgar persons; But it is the product of unparallel'd leve, consulting infinite Wisdom concern­ing the Restitution of lapsed and degene­rate Man to that Primitive estate of feli­city and perfection in which he was cre­ated. 'Tis a beam descending from the Fa­ther of Lights, to inlighten those which sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide their feet into the wayes of peace. 'Tis the true Elixir prepared by the fire of Divine Love to project upon gross and impure matter, to refine and transmute it into a more noble and excel­lent nature, and to impregnate earthy mor­tals [Page 11] with a tincture of Divinity; The rays of the Sun of Righteousness ripening the Soul into a maturity for glory.

2. 'Tis an immediate Emanation from the Eternal Fountain of Truth and Good­ness, and so neerly allied unto Heaven, that it can in a peculiar manner call God Abba, Father; notwithstanding all cre­ated Beings owe their Existence to a Di­vine Fiat, and by some more shadowy and obscure Characters give testimony of their sacred Original; yet Religion bears so much of Gods Image and Superscription upon it, that he that runs may read his Name ingraven there in capital letters. 'Tis the Star that guides man to Bethlehem; the Mercurial Statue that points the way to true happiness; a Treatise written by Gods own finger, teaching the method of re­course to himself. 'Tis his communicati­on of his goodness to mankind in its ut­most dimensions, aiming at the accom­plishment and perfection of humane na­ture in transcendent expressions of grace and bounty.

3. Though men by the improvement of their natural parts, might have inriched their minds with many excellent notions concerning the Divine Nature and their own; yet the most sagacious and acute could never have sufficiently informed themselves of those means which are pro­per and effectual to the attainment of the chiefest good: Nor could unlock the Ar­chines of Heaven, and search the Records of Eternity, and understand the counsels of God concerning Mans Salvation. Here the light which is in Nature's darkness the Universe is still a Chaos; the name of a Mediatour is not to be found in the whole Volume of the Creation; the Scene must be changed before a Redeemer doth ap­pear.

4. Had not God commiserated the ru­ines of Mankind, and provided a Saviour for them, their misery had been unavoid­able, as to any means their utmost skill could have contrived or found out to pre­vent it. He was therefore graciously pleased to make such discoveries of the way of his reconciling and recovering [Page 13] men unto him, as might be available to the attaining so blessed an end. And the whole method of restoring Man depend­ing solely upon the free grace and free will of God, only Divine Revelation could acquaint us with the manner of its dispen­sation.

5. The World by wisdom knew not God, but fluctuated in uncertain opinions and conjectures concerning the Providence of God, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to come; were altogether unacquainted with the expiation of Sin by the blood of a crucified Saviour, with the washing of Regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, with the way to Heaven by Faith, Repentance, and Charity. But he who from Eternity lay in the bosom of his Father, hath manifested the way into the holiest of all, and brought to light life and immortality by the Gospel.

6. What more can be said to encou­rage the children of men to entertain Religion, then may be deduced from this single consideration; viz. That the sourse [Page 14] and original of it is no other then that Eternal Being, all whose Emanations are like himself, replete with abundance of love and goodness? From what Topicks shall arguments be fetched to prevail upon men, if they are not induced to accept and embrace Religion upon this account of its coming from the hands of God? It needs no other Letters commendatory then what it carries in its Divine Origi­nal.

7. The pretences of Mahomet, Lycur­gus, &c. to familiarity and converse with some spiritual and holy beings, have been effectual to ingratiate those Precepts they designed should be embraced by their Pro­selytes. And shall Truth and Goodness it self, discovering the way to bliss, be re­jected and disdained as fabulous or im­pertinent in its Declarations, Commands, and Prohibitons, when the Narratives and Laws of Enthusiasts and Deceivers have been entertained as certain and necessary? Shall the Revelation of God have no influ­ence upon the Souls of men to improve their Intellectuals, to correct their Morals; when [Page 15] the pretended Inspirations of crafty Im­postors have been so unhappily progres­sive in the deluding their understandings, and debauching their practices?

8. It speaks the excellency and noble­ness of Religion, in that it proceeds from God; it cannot be presented to us at any greater advantage; This demonstrates it to be a faithful saying, and maks it worthy, as the Apostle phraseth it, of all acceptation. Its neer alliance to the Deity challengeth our greatest kindness and respect; and a se­rious reflection upon this one inducement, may supersede the consideration of all those other arguments and motives our reason may suggest unto us to perswade us to wel­come and embrace it.

9. Who would not salute so lovely a beauty with [...], welcome thou Light of Life, thou Ray of Heaven, thou Beam of Glory, thou Panacaea of Humanity, thou Transcript of Divinity, thou blessed Ema­nation of the Deity, thou Directress of our Way, thou Repairer of our decayed Na­ture, thou perfect Consummation of our Felicity, and sacred Magnetism even of God [Page 16] himself? Let me invert that saying of our Lord, Do men gather Thorns from Vines, or Thistles from Fig trees? Who can be­lieve that the Fountain of Sweetness will send forth bitter streams; that the Sun of Righteousness will drop down mischievous influences; that the Father of mercies, in­stead of bread, will give a stone, and in lieu of a Fish, a Serpent; that the Grapes of the true Vine will set the teeth on edge; that the Rose of Sharon, and the Lilly of the Valleys will send out an unsavoury smell? Is it no delight to sit under the sha­dow of the Tree of Life? Is not the fruit pleasant to thy taste? Why then shouldst thou refuse to drink of Gods Wine, to eat of his Bread, to be happy in his embraces? and this thou dost in rejecting Religion.

10. Religion is no trade set up by God in the world, to acquire any emo­lument and advantage to himself, as if he were greedy after a little of the crea­tures fading breath, and prided himself in their celebrations of his Name. God is infinitely happy in the reflection upon his own beauty, and in the enjoyment of his [Page 17] own perfections; and his essential glory is as incapable of accession as 'tis of diminution: The worship, service, and homage of the creatures can contribute nothing unto him; 'tis at the highest, but the acknowledgment and adoration of that transcending glory which he hath possessed from Eternity, and wherein he is God blessed for ever, Job 22. 2, 3. Can a man be profitable unto God? as he that is wise may be profitable unto him­self. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect? The Apostle in his Sermon to the Athenians, treating of the Worship of God, declares that it is not instituted by God out of indigence and neediness, Act. 17. 25. [...], as if any thing were thereby superadded unto his felicity. We may warm our selves by those fires which we kindle for Sacrifice, and smell the Perfume of our own Incense, with which though God may be well pleased, he cannot be profited: the benefit of our service redounds not to our Master, but to our selves; the righteousness of man doth not extend to God; the Honey he ga­thers [Page 18] is for his own hive; the Crown he contends for is to adorn his own head.

11. The precedent Considerations should excite us to thankfulness and obedi­ence unto him, who remembred us in our low estate, and loved our souls out of the pit of corruption; God without impairing his own happiness, might have suffer'd us to have continued in that state of sin and misery into which we had plunged our selves; but when we could by no means deliver our own souls, he found out a ran­some for us, and offers Salvation unto us, and that upon such conditions as we can­not disallow. What kindness shall we think too great for so faithful a friend? What gratitude too much to so liberal a Benefactor? What could God have done more for us then he hath done to engage us to himself? he laid all possible obligations on us to win our love and service: yet of the God which formed us are we un­mindful, and lightly esteem the Rock of our Salvation. Where shall we find any so sensibly affected with the favours of Heaven, as to inquire, What shall we ren­der [Page 19] to the Lord for all his mercies, and awaken all within them to bless the Name of God? He hath been pleased to pro­pound unto us effectual means for the ob­taining Eternal life, which are styl'd by the name of Religion; but how few are there which pursue this blessed end by a serious performance of all those interme­diate actions which conduce thereunto? He hath showed thee O man what is good; he hath made known unto thee the path of life; Why then doth thy way lead thee to Hell, and thy goings to the chambers of death? Light is come into the world; Wherefore lovest thou darkness more then light? Thou art told thou art redeemed with the precious blood of the Son of God; wherefore then dost thou sell thy self to commit iniquity? The grace of God hath appeared to thee bringing Salvation with it; and wilt not thou be taught by it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godlily in this present world? Ephes. 4. 18. Ephes. 5. 1. The Son of God hath manifested unto thee love beyond all example and expression; [Page 20] and wilt thou not be constrained by the love of Christ; No Rhetorique can per­swade him to Religion, who is not pre­vail'd upon by considering, that the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ in Humane Nature, hath undergone and acted what­soever is required of us; And in this sense is Religion aptly call'd by the Apo­stle, the Life of God, and an imitation of him.

1. THat Liberty and Freedom are uni­versally acknowledged to be Pri­viledges, and on the contrary, Bondage and Captivity accounted of as matter of In­famy and Misery, is a truth shines so clearly [Page 22] in its own light, that it needs no demon­stration. That Religion rescues the children of men out of a state of slavery and vassa­lage to the power of Darkness, and asserts them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, is as evident and perspicuous as the precedent concession; And that, in this regard it ought to be acceptable, will be the inference of any that have but the first fruits of reason, or sense enough left to put a difference between what is plea­sant and ungrateful to their own na­tures.

2. There seems indeed to be something of bondage in the name of Religion, accor­cording to their Critism; we derive it à Re­ligando, but it imports no more then such ties and engagements as result from mu­tual cognation, and can include nothing which is inconsistent with the greatest li­berty, except we judge a child to be inslaved in its Parents arms, and a man im­prisoned in his Friends embraces. 'Tis a Law of Love and Liberty; its silken Bonds are as Girdles and Garters, not to fetter and in­tangle, but to strengthen and adorn.

3. The Liberty of Religious minds is scarcely out-vied by the blessed Angels, devout and pious Souls being sometime carried on the wings of ardent desire, as directly toward God as the constraining power of the sense of Divine Love can produce reflection, acting upon Infinite Goodness with the sweetest complacency and delight, and the most unbounded free­dom, being above those carnal checks and controllments, which debarr all unhallowed and degenerate minds from free converse with the Divinity.

4. There is a Sensual appetite sits as Queen Regent in the Souls of all wicked persons, which gives outs its Laws to the whole Man, prohibits its entercourse with whatsoever is not found in its own Domi­nions; though it afford no other then temporal and material objects. Sin lays a restraint upon those active and generous Principles wherewith the Soul of Man through the indulgence of Divine Bounty is possessed; shackles its free and Heaven-born powers, rebates that gallantry and laudable ambition by which it is promped [Page 24] to recover its Primitive Felicity; congeals that innate warmth and vigour which should cherish and promote irs Essays to Happiness; suspends the natural energy, and propensions of the Soul, and charms all its vital and vigorous faculties into a senseless Lethargy.

5. Religion loosens and unfetters the Soul from its confinement to material ob­jects; impregnates that vital Principle which is wrapt up in the Soul with activity; spirits all the wheels of motion, and makes it swift as the Chariots of Aminadab; Takes off that Embargo by which the Channel to Happi­ness is obstructed, and proclaims a free Trade between Heaven and Earth. It a­wakens the Soul to a sense of its own Im­mortality and Original, and spurs it on to aspire by Purity, Love, and Humility, to the Crown of Eternal life and glory; but time and sense are the Tropicks beyond which the affections of degenerate minds do never move.

6. No Character can more exactly ex­press the state of a sensual man then that which the Apostle draws out, Tit. 3. 3. [Page 25] where he describes him to be a servant to divers lusts and pleasures. Every wicked man doth abjure and renounce the sove­raignty of Reason, and transfer it upon Sense; deposeth that [...], whose coercive power should restrain the impe­tuous Efferations of the inferior Appetite, and introduceth an anarchy of brutish and insolent Passions, which rack the Mind by imposing commands irregular and contra­dictory, exacting things at an infinite di­stance, and of an impossible consistence. Every vanity hath a power over him; one says, Go, and he goes; another, Come, and he comes; a third, Do this, and he doth it; beside that general conflict between Sense and Reason, Appetite, and Conscience: there are many petty Principalities warring one against another; Pride, Covetousness, Malice, Intemperance, every of which press him to their service, upon the ap­proach of the various temptations; he is possessed with a spirit casts him sometime into the fire, sometime into the water; he lackies at the beck of every inordinate desire, and is not Master of his own motion; [Page 26] he is under the power of the Creature, as the holy Apostle expresseth it, and not at his own dispose, as having quitted the go­vernment of Reason, and resigned up himself to have his Ears bored by his Lust.

7. Sinners, their actions are not squared by any other rules then those their fancies, consulting with their Senses, do suggest unto them; the liberty which they indulge themselves, is an evidence of the greatest slavery and basest servility: they cannot cease from sin, 2. Pet. 2. 14. The service of God, as is expressed in our Liturgy, is perfect freedom: 'Tis no badge of an abject and sordid spirit to be imployed about the affairs of Heaven, but speaks a man to be of a noble, free, ingenious and ample soul.

8. Christianity is not designed to debase and effeminate the minds of men, to despoil them of true liberty, and circumvent them into a state of bondage; but to knock off those fetters, and file off those chains by which they were detained in captivity to the power of the Prince of Darkness, and [Page 27] make them free unto Righteousness. All those Priviledges which we forfeited by be­ing tainted with the Treason of the first Adam, are restored us again by our in­terest in the second. Religion 'tis the Mo­ther of all real Liberty; the most absolute Potentate may embrace it without any su­spicion of its intrenchment upon his royal Prerogative. All the children of its King­dom are free; no burdens imposed, no taxes exacted of those which live in its Domini­ons. 'Tis both a freedom of state and free­dom of will is the happiness of all holy men. Their spirits are too vigorous to be confined to this lower region, to be fetter'd by any sublunary and sensual objects; but they mount upward, as with Eagles wings, and visit the world above, and take a prospect of the heaveny Jerusalem and the glory of it.

9. Sensual men are still sinking into themselves, couching toward their center, till they are buryed like coals in their own ashes. Self-love and worldly interest con­fine them to so close an imprisonment, that they live sequestred from all noble society, [Page 28] and have but the liberty of conversing with their Jaylours, such impure and unhallowed delights as issue from a dark Understanding and corrupted Will; and make inquiry after no other Happiness then what the circumference of their own Being doth contain. They make themselves the center of all their designs, and all their actions rellish of that Principle of Self, by the attractive power of which they are forcibly detained in the Regions of Death and Darkness.

10. Hath God designed to inlarge and ampliate the Soul of Man by the power of Religion, and to make it more capacious of Divine Enjoyments; is his aim to break the bonds of our sins asunder, and take the yoke of bondage from our necks, and reco­ver us from the snare of the Devil, and to loose us from that spirit of infirmity wherewith we are bowed down; to deliver us from the power of the dark Kingdom, and translate us into that state where we shall enjoy the priviledges of the sons of God? What readiness of mind should this beget in us, to embrace Religion, and [Page 29] together with it a freedom from the drudgery of all unruly Passions, inordinate Affections, sensual Inclinations, and incon­sistent commands of self-will and self-love, by surrendering up our selves to the con­duct of the Spirit of God, which will make us free from the law of sin and death! When liberty is proclaimed to the captive, and the opening of the Prison unto them that are bound, will not the captive exile hasten out of the pit wherein there is no wa­ter, and the prisoners of hope turn to their strong hold? God in the Gospel offers us a sufficient power, for the overcoming all that strength which detains us in captivity, and tyrannizeth over us: Do not then O Christian idly suffer thy self to be inslaved to an hellish or brutish servitude, by a false belief that thou canst not come out of darkness, as Job speaks; but by faith in an Almighty power assault the Enemies of thy liberty, that triad which St. John speaks of, 1 Joh. 2. 16. and thy conflict shall not fail of being crowned at the last with victori­ous success; and thy Soul finding it self disentangled in part from the bondage of [Page 30] corruption, will endeavour more and more a perfect recovery of that Paradisiacal freedom, which upon the total subversion of the Kingdom of darkness will be the blessedness of the Saints in light.

11. I know the propounding of Liberty to men, by subjection to the Commands of God, is a Paradox to the licentious liver, who for the present thinks no bondage so severe as walking according to the rule of Reason and Religion, and will not believe that to be a Paradise which is inclosed; and how I should explain this Riddle to him, during his eager chase of his beloved game, I am at a loss, because then the use of Reason and voyce of Conscience are neither of them attended to: Buf if God by any Providence stop him in his furious careere, and allay the violent ebullitions of his mind, when he con­sults with his own Soul, he will need no other Tutor to instruct him, that Liberty and Vertue are met together, that Freedom and Religion do kiss one another.

1, HOnour hath the universal suffrage of all ingenious persons for an in­estimable Jewel, and worthy of the greatest [Page 32] care and indeavours which can be imploy­ed in its acquisition; they are justly cen­sured as base and sordid, which have no respect to their Repuration, and basely applaud themselves like the Miser the Poet speaks of, under the hisses and disregard of the world, Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo. The ancient Heathens have had great esteem and veneration for all true and real Honour; and many have told us, that he makes no bad bargain that can pur­chase it, though with the loss of all other Interests; yea, that life it self when it comes in competition with Honour, is to be undervalued and sacrificed thereto; and judged him unworthy the name of Man, which would not subordinate all designs and indearments, how precious soever, to the procuring of it.

2. The spirits of men are exceeding prone to boil over in immoderate desires of Honour, and by indirect and sordid means to attempt it, when they are de­fective in those noble and generous at­chievements which may give them right to claim a propriety therein: so eager [Page 33] and impetuous is this thirst after fame and glory, that if it be not found in conjunction with Vertue, to direct it to such enterprises as truly ennoble the undertakers, and to cir­cumscribe it within its just bounds & limits, it doth frequently provoke the minds of men to such wild and exorbitant actions in the chace and pursuance thereof, which contract the most real infamy and reproach, and speak the narrowness and degeneracy, not the am­plitude and excellency of the Actors Souls. What else means the unbounded ambition, the savage cruelty, the perfidious treachery, the unjust usurpations, the violent invasions, the barbarous depopulations, with many other acts of the same hellish complexion, which by History and Experience we are too sadly assured of? What except an insatiate thirst of Glory, which could not be allayed with the draught of one World, could provoke the Youth of Macedon to weep because there was not another? What but an itch of Fame could intice an Herostratus to sa­crifice the magnificent Structure of Diana's Temple to the bare mention of an execrable Name?

3. The Stoicks owned no other Honour for currant, then that which had the image and superscription of Vertue stampt upon it, accounting that spurious and illegitimate which was not the issue of a vertuous and heroique Soul, disdaining to lay the foun­dation of so great an excellency upon the wheel of Fortune, or the uncertain blasts of Vulgar breath, but upon so firm a basis as was sufficient to support it without being beholden to external appendices, and could maintain its luster and oriency in the want of those splendid additaments, which those that are destitute of all true and real glory pride themselves in, as essentially requi­site to the constituting of Honour, affirming Vertue not only to be its own Reward, but also its Herald too, proclaiming him that is vertuous most glorious and honourable: whereas the most illustrious Titles, when they are not accompanied with those inno­bling imbellishments which are proportion­able unto them, are evidences of vain-glory and arrogance in those which assume them; of misprison and ignorance in those which attribute them, and confer no real [Page 35] worth and value upon such which pass un­der those illustrious appellations. This Apo­thegm is registred among the wise sayings of the Jewish Fathers, in Pirke Avoth, [...] That the study of the Law doth magnifie a man and make him honourable.

4. Desert is the soul of Honour; the true stamp of Nobility is upon the Mind of Man. Religion puts a luster and glory upon the spirits of men, advanceth them unto the highest dignity that they are capable of: The Righteous is more excellent then his Neighbour, of a more worthy extraction and descent; he participates of a Divine Nature, may claim kindred with God him­self: what the Poet saith of Aeneas, is verified of him, Contingit sanguine coelum: he is neerly allyed unto Heaven, an high-born Prince, being as St. John tells us, born [...], from above: the Blood-royal of Heaven runs in every Christians veins; as is Christ, so are they, each one resembling the Child of a King: with a little variation, but with the same amazement and affection may the words of the beloved Apostle be [Page 36] applyed unto his present Theme, 1 John 3. 1. Behold, what manner of honour is this the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: which pri­viledge is not meerly titular, & magni no­minis umbra, but imports some real and essential dignity communicated unto those upon which this [...] is conferred, as the same Apostle styles it, Joh. 1. 12.

5. Whatsoever doth any way contri­bute to the rendring men famous and honourable, is in holy Writ eminently ascribed unto good and religious persons: Doth Wisdom make the face to shine, and Understanding give preheminence? A Good Man is wise as an Angel of God; To fear the Lord, that is Wisdom; and to depart from evil is Understanding: What greater wisdom then to secure an Eternal state of Blessedness? What more excellent know­ledge then that of the best of Beings? with this noble Spirit is every holy man indued; he is conversant with the most glo­rious and ravishing objects, knows the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, and lays up a good foundation against [Page 37] the time to come, that he may lay hold upon Eternal life.

6. Doth Power, and Victory, the Throne and triumphant Chariot, challenge the highest attributions of Honour among men? Of him that is religious it may be truly proclaimed, he is a greater then Alexander, a stronger then Sampson. If Saul hath slain his thousands, David hath slain his ten thousands: Where shall we find such for­titude and magnanimity as predominates in a Christian? A power over all violent transports of the Mind, and impetuous desires of the Sensitive Appetite, is a victory transcending the conquests of the most puissant Monarchs of the World. Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit mae­nia. Those whose names have swell'd to the utmost, have been streightned by Am­bition, and wanted elbow-room in the world; their Victories have been characters of their servitude, and their Trophies badges of capti­vity. A stuat infoelix angusto limite mundi, is true of the mightiest them of all. The Hebrews have a Maxime, that he is a man indeed that masters his own appetite, [Page 38] [...] Who the Champion? [...] he which subdues his concupi­scence. None but a Christian can write himself the Conquerour of the World, 1 Joh. 5. 4. His [...], or triumphant Song is in no danger of a Palinodium, 'tis set for Eternity; he is more then Conquerour: and who may triumph, if not he who doth [...], over-overcome, Rom. 8. 37.

7. Wisdom and Power by which men are rendred so conspicuous and glorious, when found in company with Goodness, make them truly Noble and Honourable; but when separate and abstracted from it, give them a name and nature resembling that of the Prince of Darkness, whose wit and power do concurr to make him most infamously famous. The light of Nature hath discovered in the most perfect and glorious Being, infinite Wisdom and Power joyned with as unlimited Goodness. Hence in the Writings of the Ancients, we fre­quently find Deus optimus maximus. When Moses desired to have a view of the glory of the Deity, God tells him, he will cause his goodness to pass before him; as if that [Page 39] were the only beauty and luster of his Na­ture. The renowned Stagirite acknow­ledgeth, that to be good, and do good, is the greatest honour. Though the wild Gallants account the name of Good-man a diminutive Title, yet the greatest Poten­tates have to the rest of their Title super­added [...], which is of the same signi­fication and importance.

8. There is in sin that turpitude which makes its Proselytes asham'd to patronize it; 'tis this that makes the countenance of man to fall: such that shame and ignominy which is annexed to it, that no body will own it but by another name; the proud man scorns any other Epithet but that of magnanimous; and the prodigal then that of free and generous: The Miser will have his sordidness interpreted frugality; con­tention and revenge shroud themselves un­der right and justice; and any worse name then a good companion, is displeasant to the rudest debauch; fraudulent circum­vention usurps the title of Wisdom, and the most flagitious sinners baptize their sins with the name of Vertue, to make [Page 40] them less odious to themselves and others: the Prince of Darkness acts in disguise, transforming himself into an Angel of Light, and inticeth sinners to the perpetra­tion of the most horrid villanies under the appearance of the greatest good.

9. The holy Scripture representeteth sin under such averting forms, as may beget in us the highest shame of it and indignation against it. It hath supplanted us and rob'd us of our birth-right, and laid our honour in the dust. The state of Innocence was a state of dignity; by the first transgression the right Adam had to honour was forfeit, and he became at once obnoxious to shame and sorrow. Sin hath stain'd the purity and brightness of our natures, debased and me­tamorphosed rational creatures into another kind: to express this great degeneracy, the Holy Ghost styles wicked men Vipers, Dogs, Wolves, Swine, and Children of the Devil; chargeth them with the greatest ignorance, folly, ingratitude, and dis-inge­nuity, and with whatsoever is unbecoming a reasonable and well-natur'd creature; as to hate God, to love death, to despise a mans [Page 41] own soul; mentions them as being fascina­ted, distracted, infatuated.

10. Religion restores the Soul to the dignity of its first Creation, by accom­plishing it with those virtuous habits and excellent dispositions which were the glory of man before his lapsed state; this hap­piness doth, most what, attend virtuous men, that their actions have the approbation of their enemies, there not being many so insensible of the difference between good and evil, as not secretly at least to acknow­ledge those which are truly religious worthy of honour and esteem, yea, and imitation too; and on the contrary, that those which are vitious and debauched, have a real igno­miny and reproach inseparably cleaving to them, from which only Repentance and Reformation can be their Vindicators.

11. Such indeed is that vain and desul­tory temper of some persons, that we may justly take up the complaint of the Church, Lam. 4. 2. The precious sons of Zion, com­parable to fine Gold, how are they esteemed as earthen Pitchers, the work of the hands of the Potter! in lieu of honouring them [Page 42] that fear the Lord, they slight and under­value them, making them the subject of their scorn and insolent humours, vilifying them with opprobrious and ignominious terms, accounting them the filth and off­scouring of the world, the poyson, and a pest, [...], Act. 24. 5. of humanity, unwor­thy of all civil society and natural accom­modations: But all that contumely and re­proach by which such men endeavour to render such men ridiculous or odious, de­rogates nothing from their true worth and honour, which can be no more disparaged by those calumnies wherewith it is aspersed, then those eminent Constellations in the Heavens which contain so many glorious Stars, are obscured by the fictitious imposi­tions of Bear, Scorpion, Dog, Serpent, &c. Honour is alwayes secured in the company of Vertue. And although for a time good men do lie among the Pots, and may be sullied with scandalous imputations, the time is at hand when they shall come forth and appear glorious as a Dove, whose wings are covered with silver, and her fea­thers with yellow gold, to borrow the lan­guage [Page 43] of the Psalmist, Psal. 68. 13.

12. Sith true Religion is essential Honour, the prosecution of it is not a design unworthy the most heroique and generous spirits; The King of Heaven is the Fountain of Honour, and 'tis derived from him upon all his favourites in such a measure as may gratifie the height of ambition, ('tis beyond our thoughts to tell you, what his dignity shall be whom this King will honour) when you read in holy Writ of a Crown, a Throne, a Diadem, a Scepter, and all royal habiliments, and triumphant magnificence, secured by the Promise of God unto his Servants, it should quicken you to the per­formance of such religious and vertuous actions, as may render you worthy of that honourable entertainment with which the bounty of God will bless his people.

13. I would have none honour himself with the name of Man, that scorns those accomplishments which are the glory of Hu­mane Nature, yea, and of the Divine also; God having emphatically spoken of Holi­ness as his greatest glory, Exod. 15. 11. To set goodness at naught is to spit in our [Page 44] own our faces, and to lay our honour in the dust. He that can sport and caress him­self either in the Publique contempt, or sly and secret derision of what is indeed reli­gious Vertue, let him pass for as acute a Wit, or worshipful Gallant as he will in his own account, he doth but reproach his Being, speaks evil of his Dignity, is a­shamed of his Glory, and proclaims his folly: and thus did not those which pass for Heroes and Worthies in the Annals of Ages, as well Humane as Divine. At Athens the Temple of Vertue was to be passed through to that of Honour.

I shall conclude this Chapter with a pas­sage out of a person honourable upon all accounts, R. B. Fame is a blessing only in relation to the qualities and persons that give it: Since otherwise the tormented Prince of Devils himself were as happy as he is miserable; and famousness unatten­ded with endearing causes, is a quality so [Page 45] undesirable, that even infamy and folly can confer it; As Momus is little less talk'd of then Homer; the unjust Pilate more famous then Aristides the just; and Barabbas his name signally recorded in Scripture, whereas the penitent Thief is left unmentioned.

1. HE whose experience qualified him with sufficient judgement, to dis­criminate between the precious and the vile, when he comes to pass a censure upon pleasures and indulgences of the meer animal life, saith of laughter it is mad, and of mirth, what doth it? and when he gives in his judgment of the ways of Wisdom, commends them to the sons of men as pleasantness and peace. Prov. 3. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. [Page 47] Replete with such pleasures as exceed the Senses, and such peace as passeth the Under­standing. Here we have one of the first-born of Wisdoms children, rising up, and calling her blessed. If you would know how emphatical and pregnant the expressi­ons here used, are to illustrate and advance the excellency of Religion, you may learn it from any Commentator: I shall only sug­gest this consideration, that by Peace, which the Hebrews made use of in their Saluta­tions, is to be understood according to their idiome, the confluence of all manner of blessings; the three common salutations of the Greeks, [...], [...], [...], being but equivalent to this one which doth sum­marily comprise in it, welfare of mind, health of body, and success of affairs.

2. My meditation is in this Chapter confined in particular to the pleasure and delight which pious Souls are partakers of in their constant exercise of those duties to which Religion doth oblige them. They are a Canaan flowing with Milk and Honey; an emblem and epitome of the State of Heaven, the Presence Chamber of the King [Page 48] of glory; they are fill'd with fulness of joy, and drink of the River of pleasure that is in the Paradise of God. Religion brings the Soul to converse with objects of so glorious a nature, that it is at once transported with wonder and delight. The thoughts of that exuberant Love, manifold Wisdom, and in­finite Power which did contrive and accom­plish the Redemption of Mankind, with those blessed consequences, which attend it occupie and possess the Souls of holy men; and that clear apprehension they have of, and interest in these Divine Truths fills their Souls with joy unspeakable and full of glory; under these shadows do they sit with great delight, and the fruit is pleasant to their tast, that I may borrow the ex­pression of the Wise man in his Song of Loves.

3. There is a vein of pleasure runs through its whole body. To those Souls whose faculties are not distemper'd, nothing more grateful and savoury then the things of God; 'tis an evidence of a diseased and corrupt mind, to nauseate and disgust this heavenly Manna, and to relish the Garlike [Page 49] and Onions of Egypt. When God hath pre­pared a Table, and furnished it with an Oleo of all high tasts compounded together, to invite the sons of men thereto, it speaks a great measure of degeneracy, to delight to eat husks with the Swine, and in effect bid God keep his good things to himself. But those sacred Viands, which to a wicked mans Palate have no more taste then the white of an Egge, are to him which is truly religious, sweeter then the Honey, or the Honey-combe.

4. The Pleasures of holy men are founded upon those objects which make them rival the Angels in felicity; nay more, of the same nature with those wherewith the King of glory entertains himself. That correspon­dence and harmony which there is between their Minds, and Truth, and Goodness, is the Fountain of all those pure and crystalline pleasures which they do enjoy. A strong sense of Divine Love, and firm perswasion of Eternal Glory, begets and propagates a Christians joy; 'tis of a more sublime and exalted nature, then are those gross and corporeal delights wherewith the Senses [Page 50] are affected; 'tis depurated and refined from all that earthly foeculency, which is incor­porated into the very quintessence of those pleasures which material objects do produce. The most ravishing and taking delights, which the world doth prostitute to them which are her greatest favourites, are foul and fulsome, and resolved into their first principles, will appear fitter objects for disdain then desire, and rather to be loathed then lov'd. What are all their pleasures, but the product of a greedy and ravenous desire, which suppose their Souls to labour under some violent distempers? they are but the scratching of an Itch, or the plea­sure of drinking under the scorchings of a Calenture.

5. The degeneracy of Humane Nature appears in nothing more then in mens proselyting themselves to brutish sensuality, wherein the Beasts do indeed out-vie them, as being furnished with greater exquisite­ness of Sense, for the entertainment of the objects of Sensitive pleasure. Yet how many are there which sacrifice their Reason to their Appetite, and sink themselves into a [Page 51] lower species; which place the Beast above the Man, and quarry upon no other prey, nor pursue the chase of any other game, then what may gratifie their brutish Lusts; which live only in subserviency to their sensual Inclination, and subordinate all their actions to the interest of the Flesh, and never reflect upon the excellency of their Soul, nor regard the adorning of it with those vertuous habits which will qualifie it for Everlasting glory? as if all delectable objects were calculated for the meridian of the Body, and ingrossed by the Senses; and the Intellectual parts had no objects agreeable to its heavenly nature to take a complacency in: such surely pity the condi­tion of Angels, and envy the felicity of Brutes.

6. These terrestrial pleasures which vo­luptuous Epicures indulge themselves, di­spirit and enervate their minds, (like the Ivy, eat out the heart of the Oak) soften them by degrees into the most effeminate and degenerous temper, and remove them the greatest distance from all noble and real delights. Divine joy doth invigorate [Page 52] and ennoble the Soul and quicken it to an heroick generousness and activity; the joy of the Lord is its strength.

7. 'Tis an opinion no less false in it self, then pernicious in its effect, to the promotion of all true goodness, which hath so many Pa­trons in the world, viz. that Religion di­vorceth its Proselytes, from all pleasant enjoy­ments, and espouseth them to a melancho­lique and sullen spirit, when the aera from which all true comfort bears date, is the com­mencement of a religious life. Instances are numerous, of them which have rioted in the variety of all worldly delights, and afterward devoted themselves to the practice of Chri­stianity, who have upon the experience of both estates, in fine concluded, that the gleanings of divine joy, are infinitely to be prefer'd to the whole vintage of worldly pleasures.

8. In other cases this Maxime passeth for a truth, That every man is to believed in his own Art; and except all moral cer­tainty be questioned out of the world, and the ultimate reason of all belief terminated in the Senses, and our assent to the most [Page 53] common and certain truths be suspended, until they give us information; I see no ground of exception, against the testimony of those religious and holy Souls, which assert their frequent experience of many ravishing and satisfying pleasures to be en­joyed in the conscientious exercise of those duties to which Religion doth engage them: Or why any should miscall their heavenly Sentiments and Impressions, the Chimera's and Enthusiastical Hallucinations of an active and busie Fancy; as if Chri­stians in this resembled the antient Philo­sophers, who have written much of the Musick of the Sphears, when they never heard any such harmonious airs; and spoke of the next World but as blind men do concerning this, without any certain as­surance of the variety of those things which they do affirm. The invitation of Philip to Nathaniel, Joh. 1. 46. Come and see, when 'tis practically answer'd, is the most powerful charm, to disinchant those who are prepossessed with such low and unworthy opinions of the ways of Wise­dom, and in worse esteem the pleasing [Page 54] vanities of this world are of so high value. How jejune and unsatisfactory are all the keck-shaws of the world to him who hath tasted how gracious the Lord is? How dull and unaffecting all its Pageantry to him who hath seen how glorious? All the galliardise and treat­ments of it, makes no impression upon those seraphick minds whose tast of earth­ly things is lost by their prelibation of heavenly pleasures.

1. THere is an intrinsique weakness and insufficiency in these terrene delights, to satisfie the minds of men; they are too short for their vast desires to stretch themselves upon; they thirst in the midst of these waters, and are scorched under its shadow; their desires are real, but enjoyments fictitious; the expectance of satisfaction is equally disappointed in the fruition and frustration of their hopes: [Page 56] when we come to graspe them, they are but wind; and to embrace them, they are but a cloud; they hang out a fair bush to invite men in, but their wine's too much diluted and dispirited to refresh and allay the violent and thirsty desires of those which turn in thither. They never satisfie, seldom compound for the debts they promise. The largest and fairest volumes of this worlds enjoyments end with a Nonnulla desunt. How many are there which are arrested in the midst of their pleasures an gran­deur, and fall like Sacrifices with their Crowns on their heads! Its stately Galleries lead to the Chambers of death; its River of Pleasures swallowed up in a Mare mortu­um; its joy is an Usher to regret and anxie­ty; its Comical Scenes end in a Tragical Catastrophe.

2. These sublunary sensual pleasures, like flowers, wither in our hands, are strangled in the birth, and perish in em­bracing; make a little blaze and vanish, salute our Senses and take an eternal fare­well, flow to us with tidings of an ebbe; they are [...], as the Father very well [Page 57] exprest them, or as the Epigrammatist, [...], of a very transient and slippery nature, subject to be eclipsed at the full of so light a colour, that they fade and are sullied in the handling, and apt to be sowred by the least clap of Thunder: assoon as ever you put your hands into their sides you shall feel their hollowness. Divine Pleasures are much inhanced in their worth by their permanence and continuance, whilst all mundane delights are justly depretiated by their inconsistence and lubricity. That heavenly Herald that knew well enough how to blazon this Worlds Coat of Arms, tells us its made up of fading Flowers beset with Crosses and Crossets. The anointing of Kings with Oil at their Coronations, inti­mates the slipperi [...]ess of their Thrones. Those things which have the most durable nature are reputed caeteris paribus, most excellent; this puts a lustre and value upon divine delights, that they are not obnoxious to that shortness and uncertainty which is the common fate of all mundane pleasures, which justly rank them in that degree of beings which are but a remove from no­thing, [Page 58] and consequently unworthy to have the affections of a Soul too strictly engaged to them, which is capable of Eternal Com­munion with, and fruition of the first and Supreme Being.

3. The mind of a good man brings him in constant revenue of solid peace and sa­tisfaction; he holds his Serenity by a better Tenure then the world can give: he is not indebted to the plenty of external enjoy­ments, for the eveness and composedness of his mind; nor doth his joy and pleasure depend upon the curtesie of the creature, but he enjoys halcyon days in the greatest tempests; to them the Rod buds and becomes pleasant; he can sing with the Thorn at his breast; he accepts with equal welcome an adverse or prosperous condition, knowing the wisdom and goodness of that Provi­dience, which doth appoint these circum­stances of life: His bones are not subject to aches upon change of weather: His joy is so securely treasured up, that it cannot be ravished away by the hands of violence, but will run parallel with Eternity. Though holy men are not by any special Charter, [Page 59] priviledg'd from outward troubles, but are involved in the same common calamities with the worst of men, yet their minds are like the upper Region, calm and serene, and not disturbed with those tempestuous storms which arise in guilty souls, upon the approach of misery. Religion allays all the perturbations and commotions of the Soul, appeaseth all those tumultuous riots and insurrections, which mens boisterous and unruly passions are apt to raise; so that their minds are neither molested by any in­ward contests or outward violence, but en­joy perpetual serenity. In the bosome of a good man you may find the Mare paci­ficum.

4. Christian Religion hath not only this peculiar advantage above all other, that its design is to repair the ruines of decayed Nature, and at last to readvance it to that primitive state of perfection it was possessed of, before the delinquency of rebel­lious Adam had brought him under se­questration; but doth in the interim com­municate such blissful enjoyments to its Votaries, as even anticipate their desires [Page 60] of being in Heaven. It takes them up in­to the Mount of Transfiguration, and gives them a Pisgah-sight of their future Inheri­tance; brings them clusters of Canaan's Grapes, before their actual entrance upon the purchased Possession. It opens a Case­ment into the other Life, whereby holy men take a view of the Kingdom of Heaven and all the glory of it; it feasts them with the hidden Manna, refresheth them with the water of life, which Antepast of Eternity makes their joy greater then the joy of Har­vest, or the joy of them which divide the Spoil: If their notion of Heaven be agree­able to the nature of it, which suppose it rather a state then a place, it is not incon­gruous to believe that pious men are in Heaven before their dissolution; they need not in the language of Moses and St. Paul, seek for one to ascend up into Heaven, to bring them comfort from above, nor descend into the deep to fetch it from below. No, it is not at such a vast distance, but it is neer them, in their mouth, and in their heart. It is the immediate issue of Conscience, giving in evidence of a sincere hearty complyance [Page 61] with the Divine Will. This fills their mouth with laughter, and their hearts with joy.

5. I do not take Comfort and Joy to be such arbitary donatives of Heaven, as to be promiscuously scattered with an indifferent hand, without respect to the qualifications of those persons unto whom they are di­spensed; but rather suppose them the natural and genuine product of vertuous actions, according to that of the Prophet Isaiah, The work of righteousness is peace, and the effect thereof quiet and assurance for ever. A good Conscience and a merry Heart are inseparable concomitants. A Christian can give himself a rational account of all those comforts he partakes of; he saith not he shall have peace though he walk in the ima­ginations of his own heart, but expects and enjoys it in the faithful discharge of those duties he is engaged to by his pro­fession.

6. There are no such Jobacches and Di­thyrambs dictated by the holy Spirit, which offer violence to the faculties of the mind, and transport it into an Ecstatical Paroxysm; this Fanatical spirit prevailed much in the [Page 62] Pagan World; and its delusions were em­braced with the same veneration an Oracle could exact. All the impressions Christians can expect the Spirit of God shall make upon their minds, are to be agreeable to their natures, accountable to Reason, and consonant to the sacred Scriptures; and this is not to limit the Holy One of Israel, or to chalk out a way for the Holy Ghost to move in his Operations, who is free to work where and when he pleaseth; but may serve for a caution to credulous minds not to be insnared by the Impostures of those which pretend to high degrees of In­spiration.

7. All the felicity of Religion lies not in reversion; good men stay not for all their Happiness till they come to Heaven. In the keeping Gods Commandements there is a great reward; Christians gather in much of their harvest while they are sowing their seed; their bliss and comfort is not wholly supported by expectation: there is a pre­sent possession of so much of Heaven as may quicken endeavours, satisfie desires, and en­courage hope. They are not adventurers [Page 63] meerly for a peradventure, but have in­surance for advantage. What is that pre­sent Revenue of Joy which good men have imparted to them, but Heaven Incarnate? God muzzles not the mouth of the Oxe which treadeth out his Corn; None serve him for nought: Who ever complained of God as an austere Master, which had expe­rience of his sevice, or can say, they had nothing for their labour but their pains? He that forgoes or undergoes any thing for Gods sake, and the Gospel, shall be compensated in this life an hundred fold, and in the world to come shall have life Everlasting. He may say as St. Paul, Act. 27. 21. We have gained this loss, of all the damage he sustains in his passage Heaven-ward; God gives good measure, heaped up, pressed down, and running over: Though we are to God un­profitable servants, yet is not Gods service unprofitable to us. If any demand, What profit is there by Christianity, and what ad­vantage an holy man hath? I answer, as the Apostle in another case, much every way; much more then any one can imagine who is estranged from the life of God, and knows [Page 64] not that sweet pleasure which is twisted into the very Essence of virtuous and holy actions.

8. Goodness and Happiness are but di­stinct notions of the same thing; what is Glory and Heaven but other names given to Grace and Vertue? for the Essence is the same; and only a gradual, no specifical difference between them. The Scripture hath baptized the smallest degrees of Grace with the name of Glory, Isaiah 60. 1. and the highest enjoyments of Glory with the name of Grace, 1 Pet. 1. 13. Hope to the end for the Grace that is brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; that Grace is glory inchoate, and grace glory consum­mate; that grace is glory in the bud, glo­ry grace in the flower, &c. are expressions frequently made use of, to express the similitude and difference there is between Goodness and Happiness. An appeal to the general experience of mankind, who have had no acquaintance with the Doctrine of our Saviour, will make it evident, that the notions they entertain'd concerning Vice and Vertue, were equivalent unto them [Page 65] which are here suggested. Plato assures us that 'tis a Law enacted from Eternity in the great Consistory of Heaven, and for ever to be kept inviolate; That Sin and Evil shall be attended with misery; that Vertue and Goodness shall be always happy. To cite what the Sentiments of Seneca, that great Moralist, concerning this subject are, would be to transcribe a great part of his Epistles, wherein he makes Vertue to be its own reward, and Vices to be the tormen­ters of such which act them; for every sin brings into the world a lictor with it.

9. A difference between Good and Evil, is ingraven in such indelible Characters up­on the minds of all men, that the most profligate and obdurate sinner cannot totally excuss them, nor sin himself into so deep a Lethargie, as to be altogether insensible of the gripings of a guilty Conscience. The holy Tongue calls Sin and Punishment by the same name, as being in effect one and the same thing. Were there no other Nemesis to execute vengeance upon wicked men, then what ariseth from their reflection upon their Impieties, yet could they not [Page 66] escape a severe punishment, having their own Consciences appointed to be their Tor­mentors. Every sinner is a Megaera to himself; there is a bosome fury that pursues a sinner, with such suggestions of guilt and wrath, as beget in it present horror, amazement and perplexity, and dreadful apprehensions of a future judgment: Sin and misery are twisted into the same thread; the vails of sin is shame and sorrow, the wages death. A sinner is felo de se; not only an accessory, but the principal in his own ruine; many an one persecutes him­self to death by Envy, Malice, Revenge, and becomes the Martyr of his Lusts. Whence come those wars and fightings, those violent perturbations and anxious con­tests which discruciate the minds of wick­ed men? come they not from their lusts? they are the effect of Pride, Self-love, and Malice; they are the Incendiaries which fo­ment divisions, and dispossess the mind of its calmness and peace: the web that en­tangles men is spun out of their own bowels; Death and Hell are to be accounted the creature of sin, that is the womb that bears [Page 67] them, and the paps that give the suck; by this the Prince of Darkness supports his Kingdom. This kindles the devouring fire, and prepares fuel for everlasting burn­ings. To sin, is to anticipate eternal death, and to be damned before one comes to Hell, and act over aforehand the Tragedie of their own destruction, and to torment them­selves before the time. As God in his gra­cious Providence doth not leave holy per­sons to grapple with the difficulties of the Divine Life, without some Prelibations of that Happiness to which it doth conduct them, for their encouragement to a conti­nual progression and advancement in Piety: So neither doth he leave the wicked to an uninterrupted tranquillity in the course of their sins, but imbitters their pleasures, by the secret Convulsions of their own Con­sciences, and by a dreadful presensation of future misery, that by these sad presages they may be excited to flee from the wrath to come, through the abhorrence of that which is its immediate and necessary cause.

10. The Epicureans did not err in their [Page 68] Philosophical determination of Pleasure, its being the chiefest good, the Alpha and Omega of Happiness; for if we have a right notion of it, (and are not imposed upon by that meretricious, treacherous and serpen­tine pleasure, which is ever attempting to insinuate it self into the affection of our mas­culine faculties) we ought to court it and imbrace it where ever we can meet it; but because we have misapprehensions of its nature and objects, therefore we hunt up­on a wrong sent, are apt to catch at every shadow, and seek the living among the dead, vainly expecting to enjoy a satisfy­ing pleasure separate from that goodness wrich is essential thereunto. Epicurus him­self tells us, though a supposed Enemy to a vertuous temperance, [...]. Wisdom and Goodness are necessary concomitants of Pleasure; which make me prone to believe, that those which exploded his Atomical Hypothesis, and were such bitter Antagonists to his Na­tural Philosophy, might be a litile over-lavish when they describe his Moral de­meanour, which though it might not be so [Page 69] cynical and morose as that of some other Sects of Philosophers, yet was different e­nough from their deportment, who for their sensual Indulgences, in the vulgarlan­guage are named Epicures.

11. A strong desire after Pleasures is ra­dically fixed in the nature of our being, we need no powerful motive to awaken us to inquire after it; for it is a Principle in our Souls, and our Propensions to it are there­fore strong, because they are natural. The government and direction of this connate Appetite, hath been a Theme largely hand­led not only by Theologists, but Philosophers, and is the ultimate end to which their stu­dies have pretended; all the circumstances of life which are valuable, are therefore so because they are delectable: 'tis the Pleasure men take in their Friends and Relations, in their Wealth, in their Honours, which en­gageth their affections to them; if that be not the result, they are no way bettered by fruition of them. Was I now disposed to be accurate and exact, in the drawing of particular Inferences from those various branches, which the foregoing notions of [Page 70] Pleasure yield, I should transgress that law of brevity, which I have for the prevention of complaints of being too prolix and tedious, prescribed my self; as also in part hinder what I endeavour to promote, viz. the Readers care to supply what is deficient by his own con­siderations; to which end, I shall insert out of a deserving Poet, that which may engage him to this practice.

But that which in general I shall suggest, is this; That whosoever shall be prevail'd upon, by any of those arguments this Treatise affords, to aban­don any vitious practice, and renounce the Works of Darkness; to live in the exercise of Virtue, and an intire con­secration of himself to the Service of God, if he find not the harmony and [Page 71] pleasure of his Soul, when in the state of Righteousness, abundantly surpassing those lower delights administred to the meer animal life, I shall give him leave to curse me for an Impostor upon his first repentance.

1. AMong those many motives which our blessed Lord did frequently in­sist upon, to bring men so much in love with themselves, as those were with whom he did converse, to espouse a Doctrine which engaged them to the practice of such Du­ties which at first sight seemed contra­dictory to the design and scope whereunto their present Inclinations carried them; he [Page 73] propounds it to them as consistent with their present Interest, and containing in it nothing repugnant to the common Senti­ments of Humane Nature, his yoak being easie, and his burden light. 'Tis such a yoak which is lined through with a downie softness, and doth not press, but ease those which take it upon them. 'Tis a burden, yet 'tis no Soloecism to say 'tis light; its Onus alarum: Let the ballace rather be ac­counted the remora of the Ship, which it secures, then the burden which our Master imposes be thought heavy, to the shoulders where it lies in its greatest weight.

2. Were Christianity attended upon with a numerous retinue of Incumbrances, which would disturbe and unsettle the peaceable and harmonious temper and con­stitution of the Mind, the neglecters of it might with some colourable pretence of rea­son, attempt to justifie their refusal, to subject themselves to the rigorous and se­vere injunctions of that which would so much retrench that liberty and serenity about which they are so highly sollicitous. [Page 74] But Religion comes not to prey upon our Peace, to disseise us of our Rights, to in­vade our Priviledges, to betray us to ser­vility, or ingulf us into a state of trouble and inquietude; or engage us unto so cruel a Discipline as Superstition hath in­stituted in the Pagan and Christian world for its Proselytes to submit to: There is nothing contained in it which offers any violence to the faculties of the Mind, or can be rightly interpreted to the prejudice of the Body.

3. There are no such insuperable diffi­culties and inaccessible Alpes in the way to Heaven, as the supine negligence of some suggests unto them, who have made the most impossible tasks to be emblemes of the Gospel Precepts, and cry out the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord, though they do not so much as touch it with one of their fingers. The Lion in this way is not so fierce as he is painted; there are no such dreadful Apparitions, no such horrid Spectres and affrighting Mormoes as are conjur'd up by the power of a deluded Imagination; the difficulties which occurr, [Page 75] are not half so great as they are represented to be by them which look at the wrong end of the Perspective. These sons of Anak are not so formidable as Supposition makes them: The story of those great Giants is a Romantick Fiction: These fiery Drrgons that watch the Garden of the Hesperides are nowhere but in a Poetique Fable. Those Centaurs, &c. which are so terrible, are the Chimaera's of a teeming Fancy, and have no other being then what misapprehension doth confer upon them. Men do first draw the Picture of Religion with a sad and low­ring Countenance, and then take occasion to dislike it; disguise it with uncouth notions, and so keep themselves at a distance from it, and are terrified with a Vizzard of their own putting on. They cast a Mantle of Darkness upon the face of Light, and re­present Religion to themselves in the most averting form; and no wonder if they be no otherwise affected with it; they con­clude there are many hardships to be un­dergone, and great opposition to be over­come, and so give themselves a Writ of Ease from the pursance of it, without any further [Page 76] inquiry into the nature of it, making an excuse of their own slanders and jealousies: doubtless such which criminate Religion as uneasie, and except against it as harsh and rigorous, are such as never give themselves the trouble to justifie or condemn their fears, by experiencing whether they were true or false; but pass a severe sentence upon it, without any other evidence then the testimony of its greatest Adversary, and their degenerate Nature suborned by him; never appealing to their own Rea­son, nor putting it to a tryal of Sense, either of which would answer their Ob­jections, silence their clamours, confute their fears, and vindicate Religion from that sourness and moroseness of which it is impeached, and make its unjust Judges become powerful Advocates to plead its easiness, pleasantness and desireableness.

4. 'Tis mens want of acquaintance with Religion deceives them into a mis­belief concerning the conversable and acceptable nature of it; to all that know it, it appears very aimable and attractive; 'tis mens Ignorance of it is the Mother of [Page 77] their want of devotion to it. The mean­ing of the matchless Spencer is apparent, in making Ignaro Porter to the Castle of the Imposturess Duessa. Wisdom is justified of all her Children, they rise up and call her blessed; Let the Brats of Folly and Dark­ness calumniate never so strongly, when men take no other view of Religion then what they have through the Devils Opticks, 'tis no news to hear them speak of it as difficult, and decline the pursuit of it as not worth their while; but to him that hath seen it in its native excellency and beauty, and understands the worth and im­portance of it, the greatest labour imployed about it, is a kind of recreative divertise­ment, and nothing that conduceth to it esteemed a difficulty.

5. What except Ignorance and Oscitancy could infuse into mens minds, such perni­cious prejudices concerning Virtue and Pie­ty, as is too apparent in the fatal conse­quences? What other causes can be as­signed of that Irreligion and Immorality, which is so Epidemical, if these be denyed? What else could beget such practical Con­tradictions [Page 78] in reasonable creatures, and make them Antipodes to themselves? How passionately do men languish and suspire after life, yet how importunately do they court the embraces of death? At how great a value do men pretend they prize the blessings of Eternity, and the Happiness of the World to come, yet sell them at the vilest rate, and exchange their Salvation for a Penny? What kindness do men pro­fess they have to their Souls, and how sol­licitous will they seem to be to procure their welfare, when in the mean time they will forfeit all their happiness to gratifie a sensual desire, and expose them to eternal misery for a moment of pleasure? Speak with most men, they will tell us, the end of their being here is to glorifie and enjoy God, and prepare themselves for an In­heritance in the future life, when all their actions proclaim them wholly immerst in this present world: and all their designs levell'd at these sublunary vanities; as if their houses should continue for ever, and their dwelling place unto all generations. How unbecoming these contradictions are [Page 79] those active intellectual and generous pow­ers of their Souls, the labour of reflection will inform them.

6. Did men enquire into, and make experience of the blessings of Religion, and lay aside those prejudices wherewith their ignorance and idleness hath prepossessed them, touching its trouble and difficulty, we should find the foundation which sup­ports the Kingdom of Darkness razed, and the tents of wickedness made desolate in a moment. Religion looks upon us with a serene and pleasant Aspect; engageth us to cope with no power so great, as threa­tens a despair of Victoiy; puts us upon no task which shall frustrate sedulous endea­vours; it gives assistance proportionable to its commands, and allows Straw enough to make the number of Bricks it exacts from us.

7. The Fundamental Truths of Christian Religion are easie and intelligible, and its most important Duties feasible; acquain­tance with Philosophical Distinctions, Scho­lastical Notions, thin and airy Speculations are not Essential to a Christian; a little [Page 80] Theory is a sufficient Basis to raise a large Structre of Piety upon. Religion, as Eras­mus complains, is become now res inge­niosa; as if it were intended more for to exercise our wits then regulate our lives; and were rather to scratch mens Itch of Disputation, then advance true Devotion, and to furnish them with Discourse, and not better their Converse: But the Doctrine of our Saviour is designed to more noble and glorious ends; 'tis to insinuate an heavenly nature into the minds of men, and effectually to ingratiate the Precepts of Virtue, and to propagate Goodness in the World; and those previous disposi­tions which are indispensably necessary for the minds of men to be qualified with, for the entertainment of this sacred Do­ctrine, are not a large stock of humane learn­ing and natural abilities, but an humble and pacate composure of soul.

8. The superficies of the Gospel, at first sight presents us with so much Truth as is needful to usher in Vertue, though we should never dig into the bowels of this golden Mine, and find out those rich trea­sures [Page 81] which are hidden there. We do much abuse our selves and injure the Doctrine of our Salvation, by framing such Idaea's of it, as are no way correspondent to the nature of it, viz. supposing it to be folded up in some inexplicable mysteries, and shadowed over with clouds of thick Darkness, or sublimated into such thin and volatile no­tions, as are too subtil for the ken of Vulgar Understandings: Whereas the wise Legislator of the Gospel, (pardon the Solaecism) hath promulgated it in so con­descending a manner, that the meanest of those who are concerned in it, may be soon Doctors, of what doth immediately relate to their Obedience. Who is so Idio­tical as to ignore the meaning of these and the like most necessary and important truths, Without faith it is impossible to please God; Without holiness no man shall see the Lord: That God hath shewed thee O man what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God, &c? All the Principal and Fundamen­tal Truths of Religion are writ in so fair a [Page 82] character, that he that runs may read them, and he that reads may understand them. God speaks not to us in the language of Eternity, but as the Hebrews frequently express it, [...] with the tongue of the sons of men; he hath graciously accommodated his speeches to the lowest capacities, fitted truths of Scripture to the lowest understandings: We need not go to a Seer to enquire what is most impor­tant expressions signifie, they shine so cleerly in their own light: The Oracles of God speak not ambiguously as the Pagan Oracles, whose sayings might be interpre­ted to contrary senses; and those which consulted them left in suspence to which construction they should give credit, till oftentimes the fatal events decided it. As the conspicuous and eminently apparent Stars are sufficient to direct the Mariner which way he is to steer his course, though many of the lesser magnitude cannot be discerned without the advantage of a Te­lescope; so those blessed Truths which are necessary for the government and regulating of our actions, are clear and visible to a [Page 83] dim eye, though there be some collateral Truths, which are not so neerly allied unto Piety, intimated in the Gospel, which are [...], hard to be understood, and fall not under the cognisance of every ordinary In­tellect, but, may be, prove too hard for the greatest Linguist, Critick, or Scholastick, to satisfie himself, or others in, as might be evidenced by many Instances, were it not a digression.

9. The Truths of Christianity are rather adapted to Sensation then Speculation; our Sentient faculties do acquaint us with more of the nature of true Religion, then our Noetical can arrive to; 'tis better under­stood by a lively taste and rellish, then by any artificial description. The manner of the Gospel dispensation as well as its design, argues all those to whom it is propounded, to be capable of receiving the benefits promised in it, and discharging the duty required in order thereunto. Religious Duties were never yet found so perplext with difficulties as to defer any Probationer from becoming a Votary; Who ever espoused her sued out a Bill of divorce? Those Exercises to [Page 84] which it doth engage us are to invigorate and to quicken the Soul, and to breath out those noxious fumes, which are so apt to weaken and distemper it; and becomes a soveraign Antidote against those Diseases to which Idleness exposes it.

10. Let wicked men compare but those real difficulties wherewith the ways of sin are incumbred, with those imaginary ones which they have set in the way of Vertue, to affright themselves out of it, and they will upon the audit of the account soon re­nounce their present opinion; so obvious is it, that every Vertue is more facile and easie then its opposite Vices: What torment is their in Love? What trouble in the concomitants of Faith, viz. Joy and Peace? What wrong is their in forgiving an Injury, and forbearing Revenge? What weight in the bearing Evil with Patience? what preju­dice is there sustained by Moderation? where doth Humility press, or Truth and Sincerity aggrieve? Doth Contentment disquiet and perplex? Do the gentle Dove-like brea­things of the blessed Spirit raise storms and tempests? Doth the hope of Eternal Hap­piness [Page 85] interrupt pleasure and delight? Doth an entire resignation of a mans self, and all his concernments, to the goodness and wise­dom of Gods Providence, and a peaceable acquiescence in his dispensations to him, be­tray to any inconveniences? what doth God require of us, or do unto us, which can give us any just cause, to complain of any hard usage or cruel dealing? which of his Laws could we desire should be abro­gated and repeal'd, as burdensome and pre­judicial?

1. THe Devil as great a Liar as he is, did never yet censure the commands of Meekness, Love, Temperance, Content­ment, &c. Every vertue hath that insepa­rable sweetness adhearing to it, which ren­ders it not only easie, but also pleasant, and makes it not only light, but a delight to those noble & generous souls which live in the practice of it. The denial of our selves, the susception of the Cross, the maceration of the Flesh, the renuntiation of the World, which are the most irksome Duties, where­with [Page 87] Christianity is charged, and carry in them the greatest repugnancy to the Incli­nations of soft and tender natures, put­ting into the account that intimate pleasure which is incorported into them, and that constant serenity which results from them, are rather pleasureable divertisements, then oppressing employments, and arguments of a magnanimous and heroick Soul, which hath subdued it self to the Divine will, and lives above the delights of Sense, pleasing it self more in serving the pleasure of the Almighty, then in the indulging its natural and vitious propensions; so that even these reputed severities, and harsh injunctions, are infinitely more eligible, then the rude­nesses and dissolutions of a sensual life.

2. Every Vice labours under its own im­perfections; there is no sinful habit nor in­ordinate Passion, which puts not the minds of men, to undergo more labour and tra­vel to gratifie it, then is necessary for the acquist and exercise of a vertuous disposi­tion. He that is of a malicious and envi­ous temper, makes himself miserable, because he cannot make others so, and sucks Poyson [Page 88] out of those Flowers wherewith others are adorned: when on the contrary, he which is possessed with a spirit of universal love, pleaseth himself in the prosperity of others, and in a sense shares of that good which they enjoy, and thus partakes of Happiness in common with the whole world: Intempe­rance makes men nauseate and disgust those pleasures they are so ravenous after, when Moderation in the use of lawful and natural pleasures, makes them grateful and desira­ble: Covetousness engageth its Proselytes to be perpetually sacrificing to a lust which can­not be satisfied, though all the Mines of Peru and Gold of Ophir were consecrated to it; but Contentment heals this Bond-man, and charms the Soul into a quiet repose, under those circumstances of affairs which Provi­dence appoints; and he only that is thus satisfied, can boast himself a Son of Wise­dom, which hath attained that Elixir turns all to Gold. Ambition 'tis a rack on which men greedy of applause torture them­selves; their heads lie too high to sleep well, and their very slumbers are disturb'd by dreams of Honour; they look for rest in [Page 89] agitation, and Panther like, leap at this poysonous Aconite till they burst. He that studies Revenge, and travels with the ac­complishment of a mischievous purpose, if he frame not an engine which doth imme­diately recoil upon himself, shall certainly be molested by such future regret and anxieties, which will more then preponde­rate the sweetness of Revenge. How free from all such sollicitudes are the spirits of those men which are of a benign and ob­liging disposition, and ready to gratifie and engage all men by an affable and courteous demeanour! To instance in every particular grace and vertue, would be to prevent the Readers thoughts, which may readily fur­nish him with the same notions of those other vertues and vices which I have not suggested.

3. Were there not so great a moral power in Custom, and an averseness in men to the relinquishment of that to which they have been habituated, men could not rebel so much against the Laws of Reason, as to give themselves up to the tyranical Impositions of their brutish lusts, considering [Page 90] the labour which they undergo in their act­ing of them, and pains they suffer after; to this the Prophet refers, Can the Aethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his spots? then may you that are accustomed to evil learn to do well.

4. It must be conceded, that true Reli­gion is not easie to flesh and blood. Lust will be very importunate to be gratified; there will be a renitency against Self-denial and Mortification; the old man will be urg­ing for his accost and fare; the Sensative Ap­petite will at first especially be solliciting to be indulged. The strong man armed will not presently quit his house, and peaceably sur­render unto the summons of Religion; there is need of a great power to beat him out of all his Fortifications. Abraham was un­willing, though the Father of the faithful, that the bond-woman and her son should be cast out. The women will be weeping for Tammuz. The right-hand cannot be cut off and cast away without some reluctancy; yet men to prevent a Gangrene will conde­scend to Amputation. The method pre­scribed by the Gospel Physitian, for the [Page 91] healing the distempers of Humane Nature, engageth men to such a diet as it not acceptable to an Inordinate Appetite. The New-birth is not accomplished without some throws. The Devil will rage when dis­possess'd. The peccant humours cannot be evacuated without some gripings; and the corrosives applyed to the proud flesh will occasion smart: ‘'Tis some pain to rack and fetch the flesh from of the lees, to ra­tifie and attenuate the spirits incrassate by vitious diet, as the learned Dr. Ham­mond speaks. The whole body of sin can­not be carried out to its funeral without being condoled by the brutish part.’ When the old man breaks up house, there are many retainers to the family are loth to part, and will pretend a title from prescriprion. Those that have liked Satans service so well, as to have given him leave to bore their ears, its an argument of their approbation of it, will at first take it ill of them, which shall perswade them to change their Master, whom they so much delight in. And say of Christ as those in the Gospel, We will not have this man to reign over us. The dull [Page 92] Ass, as Luther styles corrupt Nature, can­not endure to be laden. Those seditious Lusts and Passions, which have so long bore sway in the minds of degenerate men, will be molding Factions and Combinations against the Soveraignty and Dominion of Reason and Religion, and 'twill be some difficulty to repeal every law of the mem­bers. The first Scene of this New-life ap­pears Tragical, and there is an aptness to draw back upon the entrance into the Har­ness; before the vitiated Palat be restored to its proper temperament, it tastes no sweetness in the hidden Manna; the Onions and Garlike of Egypt are as savoury. De­praved Nature calls Darkness Light; and Light Darkness.

5. That there should be any easiness in the bearing that yoke, which is to bridle the wildness of an unruly Appetite, is a Pa­radox to all such which have not submitted to it; but a certain and known truth to all who have had experience of both Estates, and 'tis to stand of fall according to the suf­frage of so competent Judges. Those who converse with true Religion most familiar­ly, [Page 93] do not complain of any burdensom tasks and uneasy services, 'tis a weight to them who are weak through sinful infirmities, and painful only to such who labour under their own idleness. 'Tis easie to the more noble part of Man; every way correspondent to those powers wherewith our rational Souls are endowed. 'Tis not cooked for a vitious Palat, or gratifie the unbounden licorishness of a depraved Appetite: 'Tis not to treat our brutish and inordinate desires, with those varieties which they affect; but 'tis to entertain our angelick faculties, with such delicacies as are agreeable to their spi­ritual nature. Nothing more easie and ge­nuine to sanctified Nature and undistorted Reason, nor more satisfactory to the minds of men free from the Impositions of Lusts and Passions, then to worship their Creator, and endeavour to please him by an entire devotion of themselves to such actions as are consonant unto his holy Will. To give honour to whom honour is due, fear to whom fear, and to love our Benefactors, and them that love us, is currant coin all the world over; the Publicans the worst of men, did [Page 94] thus; and to be deficient in this, is an argu­ment of greater sottishness and stupidity, then is to be found in Bruits; for, The Oxe knows his Owner, and the Ass his Ma­sters crib.

6. By the renunciation of Religion, men recede from the laws of their being, and walk in contradiction to their very na­tures: There are those anticipations in our minds, which do attest not only the equity, but the necessity of it too, in or­der to the attainment of the supreme good; so that if men offer no violence to their faculties, they will naturally conduct them to such apprehensions of the Divine Wis­dom, Power and Goodness, as are proper to insinuate that Affiance, Love and Reverence, which if regulated, and improved accor­ding to Gospel Revelation, will be effectual through the grace of God, to bring men to everlasting Happiness.

7. Man as bad as he is, is not so far degenerate, as not to acknowledge the wayes of Virtue, in many respects more advantagious, and less burdensom, then those of Vice; to this the Heathen Moralists, Epi­ctetus, [Page 95] Seneca, Plutarch, &c. give in their te­stimony, and the Conscience of every man is a witness. Christian Religion, if we view it in the Epitome, viz. Faith, and Love, evinceth it's own excellency. What more rational then to give up our Un­derstandings, to the belief of those Truths which challenge assent upon such unque­stionable evidence? What more consonant to Humane Nature then to love that which is every way amiable and affecting? God because of his absolute Perfection and infinite Beauty, being altogether lovely, and because of his relative Goodness and constant Beneficence to us, he that loves not God for his Excellency, is less then a Man; he that loves him not for his Kind­ness, is worse then a Beast: If the apprehen­sions of his transcendent glory work not upon our Reasons; if the sense of his bounty and mercy work not upon our inge­nuity, 'tis too infallible an argument that we live Excommunicate from our own Na­tures, and that our demeanour is incon­sistent with those Principles which give us a right to the title of Humanity. Love [Page 96] 'tis part of that homage and quit-rent that we owe to him in whom we live, and move and have our beings; and is it not fit that he which plants a Vineyard should eat of the fruit of it? To love God is not so much a duty as priviledge, Salvation and eternal glory consisting chiefly in the con­summation of Divine Love; and 'tis diffi­cult to determine, whether he that is desti­tute of this blessed grace lies under greater sin or punishment.

1. THe Harmony of the Universe, and the Wisdom of the Creator consists in this, that all kinds of things are endow­ed with such Natures and Principles as may accommodate them for the work to which they are appointed; and in that they are goverened by such laws as are suitable to the natures at first implanted in them. The most universal Principle is Self-preservati­on; in man a rational agent, 'tis accompanied with a strong desire after a state of happi­ness, and this predominates all others, which eager appetite of good is so intimately twisted into him, that he can assoon divest [Page 98] himself of his being, as of his desire of being happy. Self-love proposeth happiness as the last end of Man, and he is under no liberty of suspending his desires thereunto, but doth so necessarily, and can do no otherwise, as is evident in all men, who eagerly chace that, in the attainment of which they apprehend happiness is to be enjoyed; and because they are not firmly convinced, that their chief felicity consisteth in the favour of God, therefore do they fall in love with painted beauties, grow fond of appearances, and court whatsoever hath the shadow and semblance of good, and are tost with the vehement motions of Love and Desire, through all the false glozing excellencies of this world, finding no ob­ject which can bear any proportion to their indigence and necessities. Whereas if they were certainly perswaded that this happi­ness which they are sollicitous to procure, did consist in the fruition of God alone, they must as readily love and desire him, as hungry men eat, or the thirsty drink, and prefer him unto all things whatsoever may challenge a place in their affection; [Page 99] and to direct and set aright, not eradicate, this natural inclination, is the design of the Gospel.

2. As the Love of God contains nothing in it which carries not the greatest con­gruity to the understandings and minds of men; so neither doth that love of others which the Gospel enjoyns, include any thing which is not highly rational, benefi­cial and agreeable to the ingenuity of man­kind, and can be dissatisfactory only to those which have exchanged the nature of Man for that of Panther and Tyger, and proclaim open war against their own spe­cies. That golden rule of our Saviours, That whatsoever we would that men should do unto us, that we should do to them, is to mind us to act in pursuance of those Prin­ciples which are deeply radicated in our Souls. Can it be called burdensom and unreasonable, to bear the same affection to another which I would have him bear to me? to put my soul in his souls stead, as Job speaks; to suppose my self under those circumstances which attend him, and cloathing my self with his condition, de­mean [Page 100] my self towards him, as I should be heartily willing to be dealt withal, were the scene changed, and be in that state wherein I am; exacting no more of him then in such a case I my self would allow? considering that as he is in the world, so am I; that we participate of the same na­ture, that the same blood runs in both our veins, that we are flesh of one anothers flesh, and bone of one anothers bone, and have the same relative obligations to all acts of curtesie and charity, being of the same original and extraction, obnoxious to the same casualties, subject to the same passions, cloathed with the same infirmities, streightned by the same necessities, and capable of the same glorious felicity; What greater inducement can there be to love, then so much likeness and simili­tude?

3. Whatsoever circumstances can con­cur to make any Laws effectual and ac­ceptable, take place in the whole systeme of the Gospel Precepts; the indispensable necessity of the things commanded, their re­lative and intrinsecal goodness, the indispu­table [Page 101] right and soveraign authority of the Legislator to impose them; their commen­dation as eligible by such which have lived under the power of them; the greatness of that reward which is consequent upon the observance of them, and the moderation of the rigour of all penal Statutes by a Court of Chancery, candidly interpreting, and favourably accepting the sincere endea­vours of all those which cordially apply themselves to the performance of them, without any severe administrations against any offenders, except them which by their own obstinacy render themselves uncapable of the grace and mercy which is offered therein.

4. To give an exact account with what pleasure and ease, alacrity and activity some run the ways of Gods Commandements, is beyond anothers power. Who knows what abundance of joy and strength may be communicated to holy men by the Di­vine Spirit? or how their Souls may be enlarged in their addresses to God! A stranger intermeddles not with this joy; nor can one acquainted with its nature know [Page 102] its extent, and determine its measure. But to this every Saint subscribes his Probatum est, that it is good for to draw near to God, and that the Introduction to eternal bles­sedness, is more easie and satisfactory to vertuous and gracious souls, then are those paths of carnal pleasure which vain men so much delight in, that lead to the cbambers of death. Though men may hear much of the easiness, and delightfulness of the yoke of Christ, yet the half of it cannot be told them, when they come to experience what the [...] means, and find how gracious, benign, good and profitable a yoke it is, then will they cry out concerning it, as the Queen of Sheba did of the wisdom of So­lomon, The report that I have heard is true, but the one half of it was not declared to me. Though men hear never so much of the excellency of Religion, their experience will acquaint them with more then relation can make out.

Three things I shall insist on, which much contribute towards the facilitating the com­mands of the Gospel. 1. Their Agreeable­ness to our Reasons. 2. The Assistance of [Page 103] the Spirit. 3. The Assurance of a Reward.

5. First, The Evangelical Precepts carry a congruity to our natures, are founded upon such immutable reasons as our Understand­ings can readily assent to; they have in them an intrinsick and essential goodness, and borrow not their obligation meerly from their injunction, but are to be reckoned with those things which are commanded because they are good; not them which are good only be­cause they are commanded; under the Mosaical dispensation God made greater use of his Soveraignty, the greatest number of those Laws being Symbolical and Cere­monial, having only a Positive goodness depending upon the command; they were not founded upon natural reasons, but were purely arbitrary; and the reason of them could be resolved only into the Soveraign will and pleasure of the Almighty, there being no obligation antecedent to the com­mands, the matter of the Precepts being destitute of any real and internal good, and had only such which was relative, and in order to some higher end. Hence the [Page 104] greatest part of those Precepts are enforced by this reason, I am the Lord; intimating his Legislative Authority to be the ground of their Obedience. Besides those two Po­sitive duties of Divine Institution, which considering the lapse of man, and the good­ness of God, are accommodate to our ne­cessities, the holy Sacraments: All the commands of the Gospel concern the diffe­rence of good and evil; they have their foundation in the Nature of God, and are imitations of the Divine Perfections, and have an innate tendency to the perfecting of our natures, the equity of them easily discerned, and their accommodation to their end readily apprehended. The matter of the Precepts recommends them to our ob­servance; the Laws there prescribed, being founded upon such considerations as we are naturally affected withal; that which is thus consonant to the Principles of our nature, will be found more easie to be performed then those positive Laws which seem to be given only pro imperio. The first transgres­sion was of such a command that was meerly arbitrary, whose goodness did de­pend [Page 105] on the will of God; not of a law com­mended from any natural reason.

6. Unless we will abjure our humanity, and call our selves by some other name then that of Man; we cannot complain of the yoke of Christ as burdensome and oppres­sive; 'tis by interpretation to tax the Al­mighty of tyranny and cruelty in requiring us to live comformable to our nature; which is no more then this, that we which are reasonable creatures should act according to the dictates of our reasons, and live up to the heighth of our beings, which is the universal notion and agreement of man­kind. Whosoever will consult with his own soul, and attend to the deliberate de­bates thereof, concerning those terms upon which he stands in this life in relation to a future state, will admire and adore the indulgence and benignity of so gracious a Law-giver, in imposing no other Laws then those which have so much agreeable­ness to our natures, as to carry in themselves such weighty and forcible mo­tives as are effectual to engage us to the observance of them, not only without [Page 106] complaint and reluctancy, but also with an high measure of easiness and complacency. Upon this account the Apostle styles wicked men, 2 Thes. 3. 2. [...], absurd and un­reasonable, such whom no Topicks can prevail upon, and Ephes. 2. 2. [...], sons of unperswasibleness, whom no reason can satisfie and convince.

1. SEcondly, The assistance of the Spirit makes the commands, if a burden, easie to be born; God leaves nothing of himself forlorn and destitute, but cherisheth and aids it with the continual influences of his grace; He doth not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoaking flax, not despise the day of small things: His Power is always imploying it self in the promotion of Piety among the children of men. God is at hand to second any that set themselves in opposition to the Power of Darkness; and where he is the reserve, there is no forlorn. It was no haughty strain of arro­gance in the Apostle St. Paul, speaking of himself, [...], Phil. 4. 13. I am able for all things through Christ which streng­theneth me; and the same Apostle Petiti­ons for the same almightiness to be vouch­safed to the Colossians, Colos. 1. 12. [Page 109] Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power. The Spirit of the Gospel is styl'd the Spirit of Power, and is always ready and able to help our infirmities; and when we are foil'd by temptations, 'tis not for want of power to oppose them with; 'tis not because the weapons of our warfare are not mighty through God to pre­vail against them; but because we betray our selves, cast away our armour, and deliver our glory into captivity, and our strength into the enemies hands. Wherefore should Man plead weakness, and charge all his sin upon the impotence of his nature? when God attends upon him with sufficient grace, and is never wanting to him which seriously seeks his assistance, but makes his Power perfect in mans greatest weakness. Men lie not under any Physical infirmity whereby they are disabled for the discharge of their duties; their hands are not bound, nor are their feet put into fetters; the perversness and contumacy of their wills is the only impediment by which they are hindred from the performance of them; and how absurd and unreasonable is it for [Page 110] men to complain that Christs burden's heavy, only because they have no mind to bear it?

2. This should awaken us to the most uncessant industry, to consider that our labours shall not be frustrated, nor our designs disappointed, through the concur­rent assistance of the Deity: God hath mercifully provided for the children of men in their degenerate condition, against all those disadvantages which their present state exposeth them unto; and because we are liable to many miscarriages, by reason of the darkness of our understandings, which are apt to be deluded with false appre­hensions, and absurd and inconsequent de­ductions, through the propensity of our wills to hearken to the suggestions of the flesh, and comply with the sollicitations of the inferiour appetite; God hath not left us in the hands of our own counsel, nor set us to grapple with the enemies of our Salvation in the strength of an arm of flesh, but graciously co-opperates by the as­sistances of his Spirit, that in his might we may prevail over all those spiritual fleshly [Page 111] and worldly lusts that war against our souls, yea, be more then conquerours through his Almighty power, who never suspendeth the auxiliary concurrence of it from any which endeavour the propagation of Vertue and Religion, but is ever working in them both to will and to do of his good plea­sure.

3. Difficult and easie are relative terms, are nothing in themselves, but as they have respect to us, the difficulty and hardness of a thing being the disproportion between the faculty and the object; thus a little weight becomes a burden to an infirm person, and an easie question hard to him which is illiterate, when the one may be as easily carried by one which is strong, as the other be resolved by the one that is learned. Religion might pass not only for an impossible task, if the duties which it enjoyns us to perform were to be wrought by the strength of man, who cannot do any thing of himself, but as he is enabled by the grace of God; qui jubet juvat. The Leopard may assoon change his spots, and the Aethiopian his hue, as men of themselves [Page 112] change their natures, and root out those vitious habits which custom hath so deeply riveted into them. Therefore God chargeth nothing upon us as our duty for which he hath not afforded unto us a proportionable measure of ability, and unto the accom­plishment whereof he hath not engaged himself by promise, if we do not offer violence to the grace of God, reject his counsel against our selves, and resist the holy Spirit which we are to Petition and attend for; so that notwithstanding many duties of Religion be accounted difficult by those which are spectators only, or be so in themselves, yet those which imploy themselves in the severest and irksomest part of it, have that assistance from an unseen hand which facilitates and sweetens their labours; They walk and are not weary, they run and are not faint; as their work, so their strength is increased; the more they do, the more they may; the greater the burden is which is laid upon them, the better they can bear it; and 'tis no won­der if neither a Christians Active or Pas­sive Obedience subject him to faintness [Page 113] or lassitude when the [...], Phil. 1. 19. the supply of the Spirit is so cordial and cor­roborative.

4. Thirdly, The assurance of reward tends to the facilitating the work of Religion; That exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which is in the Gospel propounded to those which are truly religious, is an inducement so connatural, and of so easie an access unto the minds of men, and withal of so weighty an importance, that whoso­ever shall diligently poize it, will undoubt­edly give in his suffrage to this truth, that the well grounded expectation of feli­city, so incomparably great, so eternally durable, so shortly to be enjoyed, must more then counter-ballance all the asperities and difficulties which incommodate men in the way unto it. 'Tis sufficient to make the roughest places smooth, and level the highest Mountains into a Plain, and make the torrid Zone temperate; in the view of this glory all difficulties are swallowed up, and the edge of all dangers turned, and oppo­sition is so far from being a bridle to re­strain, that 'tis a spur to quicken endea­vour; [Page 114] it animates Resolution, inflames the Appetite, and improves the Soul to an higher degree of vigour and generousness, whilst it looks not so much at the things which are seen which are temporal, as at the things which are not seen which are eternal.

5. All Rational Agents are carried on by their ends, as Watches move according to the strength of the Spring, and Clocks proportionable to the weight which is hung upon them; by how much the more glorious and excellent the reward propounded and expected is, with so much the more ener­gy and vertue is the mind of the agent pos­sessed, and an answerable weight put upon the Soul for the accelerating of its motion. Whatsoever an man proposeth as his end, he gives that an Empire and Dominion over him, to regulate and dispose his actions to the attainment of it; he who makes the eternal fruition of God his ultimate end, and liveth in expectance of it, is governed and swayed thereby, to be constant in the pursuance of it, notwithstanding the means which only can instate him in that felicity be very irksome and laborious.

6. There is no temptation to sin so strong, but the motives to Obedience are of far greater force and efficacy; the encou­ragement to Duty doth infinitely preponde­rate the difficulty of it; 'tis worth the while to dive for this Pearl, to dig for this Treasure, though they lie deep; this Gold cannot be bought too dear. What though thou shouldst prick thy fingers to gather the Rose of Sha­ron, and go over a craggy Mountain to find the Lilly of the Valleys? What if thou in the sweat of thy brows eatest of the tree of life? What if thou dost toyl all the night, when thou art certain of so rich a draught in the morning? Who will not press with an holy violence to enter in at the straight gate, when assoon as he is in he beholds the bea­tifical Vision, and is befriended with a view of all the glory of the new Jerusalem? Let him that begins to be weary of well doing, or to faint in his mind in the pro­secution of this happiness, lift up his eyes unto Heaven, and every glance of that glory will renew his strength, and refresh his spirits more then the touching of the earth did Antaeus in his fatal conflict with Alcides.

7. God indeed values not the glory of his Kingdom at so cheap a rate, as to pro­stitute it to the enjoyment of every supine and idle wish, yet sets it not beyond the reach of diligent endeavours. Nothing can be justly esteemed difficult which conduceth to such an end; though there be an averse­ness and reluctancy in men to make use of those means which are effectual to the procuring so great felicity; yet doth the strength of their desires and expectations reconcile them to affect the means, which without consideration of the end they so much abhorre. In the most religious and refined Souls there is so much Humane Nature left, as would recoil and start back at the appearance of some Duties which sometimes Religion may exact, if they had not respect unto the recompence of reward, and fled for refuge unto the hope which is set before them. In all secular affairs men are encouraged by the expectation of atchieving their end, to encounter with the greatest oppositions which contradict their designs. The Merchant adventures himself upon the mercy of a boisterous and unruly Element, [Page 117] in hope of advancing his Estate. The Scho­lar with indefatigable industry pursues his studies, in expectance of having access unto those mysteries which are lockt up from vulgar understandings. The Souldier is not terrified by danger, but courts an Enemy to a battle in hope of being crown'd with spoil and triumph. By a Romanist even the scorching flames of Purgatory are cheerfully expected, as being introductory to the Pa­radise of Gods immediate presence, That far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which is prepared for the reward of holy men, cannot to them that eye it, but make the heaviest burdens light, and longest pressures momentary.

8. 'Tis very probable that the practice of Vertue abstracted from all present plea­sure, and future felicity, would be a burden wherewith few or none would charge themselves; therefore God hath graciously daigned to recommend unto us the duties of Christianity, under such inducements and motives that are most apt effectually to prevail upon us; his ways are so amiable and pleasant in themselves, that they may [Page 118] invite us to walk in them, if there were no other happiness in the conclusion; and withal the reward which at last shall be conferred, is of such transcendent worth, that the hope of it is a sufficient incentive to engage us chearfully to conflict with the sharpest dif­ficulties can possibly occur in our pursuance of it, and as the blessed Apostle with the greatest earnestness and intention of soul press toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ, being stedfast and immoveable, always abounding more and more in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord; but that having our fruit unto holiness, we shall have the end, eternal life.

9. 'Tis the nature of Hope to strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees; to keep up the Soul amidst all storms, and make it impregnable against all assaults; to sweeten the bitterest potions, and lighten the heaviest burdens; the holy Scripture abounds in pregnant instances of the powerful influences of it; it provoked Abraham to relinquish his own Country, [Page 119] and sojourn in a strange land, he looking for a City whose builder and maker was God. It prevail'd upon Moses to refuse the plea­sures, honours and advantages of a Favourite at Court, and to accept of the servitude and misery which was undergone by the Is­raelites at the Kilne, for he had respect to the recompence of reward, and saw him that was invisible. The Primitive Christians welcomed the Plunders, and did not weep when they beheld the ruine and pillage of their temporal means, but took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in them­selves, that they had in Heaven a better and more enduring substance, and under torture would not accept of deliverance. Our blessed Lord and Saviour, unto whom we are to look as the most eminent instance and ex­ample, Heb. 12. 2. for the joy which was set before him, endured the Cross, and de­spised the shame, and suffered the contradicti­on of sinners.

10. 'Tis no indulgence to the infirmities of weak Believers, but necessary for the strongest Saints to encourage themselves against all difficulties by the consideration [Page 120] of future glory. Nor is it any disparage­ment to the ingenuity and generousness of those Souls, whose obedience floweth from such a Principle as hath relation to them­selves in the attainment of everlasting bliss, for that the desire of happiness is our na­ture, and the right expression of self-love our great duty; and such which censure that love of God mercenary and meretrici­ous, which is in conjunction with the love of our selves, do not understand that we then make the glory of God our principal end, when we place our chiefest happiness in the enjoyment of him; it being a vain thing to imagine we can glorifie God any better way then in the eternal fruition of him and communion with him; the glory of God being nothing contrary to, or abstracted from the salvation of man, but that in which it doth consist, and whereby it doth most effectually display it self. Nor can we be said to love our selves more then God, or subordinate his glory to our designs, in chiefly intending and endeavouring our own happiness, when this can only be ac­complished by the denyal of our sinful [Page 121] affections, and entire resignation of our selves to his Will, and the entertainment of those Divine Impressions upon our Souls by which we are made conformable unto him; and by a participation of a Divine Nature, in the communication of which, the honour of God doth become most il­lustrious and triumphant, and the Souls of men are made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light.

11. God in Scripture hath been pleased to use all rational methods, and pathetical insinuations to engage us to look after our own happiness; by vehement Perswasions, passionate Expostulations, convictive Rea­sonings, melting Lamentations, and seri­ous Protestations, accommodating him­self unto every faculty, and touching every string of the Humane Soul that may move it toward himself; and because fear of Punishment, and hope of Reward, are the most suitable arguments to work upon reasonable creatures, God hath not been wanting in his addressing himself to us in such a manner that may deterre us from evil, and allure us to good.

12. If we have any pity for our selves, what can be more effectual to prevail up­on us to desist from all impiety, then the apprehension of that just severity and dis­pleasure of God, which we expose our selves unto by our disobedience? The Apostle was well acquainted with the force of this motive, 2. Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrours of the Lord, we perswade men. Let us think if we can bear the indignation of the Lord, and stand before the power of his anger; as is his fear, so is his wrath, Psal. 90. 11. Can we dwell with devouring fire, and lie down in everlasting burnings? Isa. 33. 14. This consideration was matter of fear to the sinners, and surprized the Hypocrites with terrour; 'tis a probable way to awaken men to flee from the wrath to come. No arguments take a faster hold of the nature of man in this degenerate state, then the apprehension of danger and fear of misery: for when all ingenuity is lost, and desire of enjoyment of Heaven is extinguished, there will remain a strong propension, which we cannot quit our selves from, to flee from misery, and escape punishment.

13. If we love our own souls, and can be affected with what is best for us, behold, God hath courted our love with the pro­mises of Eternal Happiness, and endeavour­ed to charm us to Obedience by the most desirable end, and given unto us as certain an assurance of it as we can rationally ex­pect, or as the nature of the thing is capable of, it being both spiritual and future. And because men of different tempers and consti­tutions, do not propound one and the same thing as the scope and design of their acti­ons, but are variously affected, one with Honour, a second with Wealth, a third with Pleasure, &c. God hath represented the state of future bliss in such variety of ex­pressions, as will recommend it unto all sorts and conditions of men. Let him that aspires unto Honour, take a view of the Crown of Glory, which shall be set on the head of him whom God will honour, and it will provoke him to this laudable am­bition. Let him that thirsts after worldly Wealth, survey the Riches and Treasures of the heavenly Kingdom, which is the Inhe­ritance of holy men, and it will quicken [Page 124] him in his endeavours to be rich toward God, that he may for ever inherit the portion of the just in the land of life. Let him who pur­sues the Delights of Sense, and seeks for satisfaction in these low entertainments, lift up his eyes to the Joy of Gods Salvation, In whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore; and it will possess him with the importunity of David, When, O when shall I appear be­fore the Lord, that I may be satisfied with the fatness of his House, and drink abundantly of the River of his pleasure!

1. SUch persons which have admitted into the Articles of their Creed these two Fundamental Principles of all Religion, the Existence of God, and the Immortality of the Soul, can never scruple the faith of a state of future felicity, or once doubt whe­ther such as are really good and vertuous, shall be blessed with the participation of it. 'Tis to me as easie to believe all the fabu­lous Narrations of the Popish Legend, all the monstrous absurdities of the Turkish Alcoran, and ridiculous stories of the Jewish Talmud, as 'tis to believe that such which have made the principal employment of [Page 126] their lives to be serviceable to their Crea­tor, constantly adhering to him in faithful obedience, and breathing after him with vi­gorous affections, shall be then defeated of the fruition of God, when they are most capable to enjoy him, viz. when freed from those impediments which their con­junction with a terrestrial vehicle doth ne­cessarily carry with it.

2. That there is a condition of bliss reserved for the reward of such whose vertuous actions qualifie them for admission thereunto; or as the Apostle speaks, That there remains a rest for the people of God, hath been rationally inferred by the more prudent Heathens from their observation of the unequal distribution of good and evil in this world; for surveying the present oeconomy of affairs, and finding such which were most notoriously vitious, highly gratified with all those pleasures to which their sensual Appetite inclin'd them; and that the most exactly and severely vertuous, for the most part laboured under those in­firmities and necessities which were incon­sistent with the happiness of Humane Na­ture, [Page 127] seeing these oblique transactions, that they might reconcile this administration of Providence with the Wisdom, Justice, and Goodness of God, did genuinely con­clude that this world was a place of tryal and probation, and that there was a future state for reward and remuneration; inti­mating withal, that the state to which men were appointed upon the quitting this earthly stage, is not to be primarily as­signed to an absolute and fatal decree, or the manifestation of any Soveraign and Arbi­trary Power, but to the righteous progress of that Divine Nemesis which insinuates it self through the whole Contexture of the Universe, and will not fail to dispose of persons to such an habitation and such so­ciety, for which by their previous Actions and Passions they have prepared themselves, consonant to the Divinity of the Apostle, who tells us, Rom. 9. 2. of vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and Col. 1. 12. Of a being meet to partake of the Inheritance of the Saints in light.

3. I do not find it repugnant to Christian Divinity, to embrace a favourable opinion [Page 128] of the entertainment of Socrates, Seneca, Plato, Plotinus, Epictetus, and such worthy Pagans, in the other World, whose invinci­ble ignorance of many Articles of Religion (whose neglect doth certainly conclude them under damnation, which live under the Gospel Meridian) might fairly consist with their moral innocency and integrity, and pos­sibly not hazard their future happiness, sith even they might have that faith which the Apostle allows to be sufficient to make a man acceptable to God, viz. a belief that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them which seek him, Heb. 11. 6. which if it produce those fruits, and accomplish those ends for the effecting of which faith is requisite, in the want of necessary means for the arriving to any particular and explicite notions of Redemption, 'tis probable that the root of the matter, the very essence of Religion being found in them, God, (according to the dictates of our faculties concerning his clemency and bounty, and the revelation of his Philanthropy) will not condemn them for what was never in their power to act or acquire; and for ought he hath made [Page 129] known to the contrary, may by some spe­cial indulgence favour them with that revelation of himself which is necessary to eternal blessedness: but this looks so like a Controversie, I shall decline it, referring the Reader to the 12, 13, 14. verses of the 2. of the Romans, as being the Tropick of the question, beyond which it cannot go, nor I neither.

4. Sith not only the light of Reason, and natural Religion, but also divine Revelation doth sufficiently demonstrate that vertuous and pious persons shall after their depar­ture from this world be translated into a state of bliss and glory: It may be worth our enquiry, to understand, if we can, what this blessedness is; where if we follow the guidance of the Ethnick Poets, they will lead us

To the Elisium Fields, the Fortunate Islands, &c. and treat us with Nectar and Ambro­sia, and celestial Viands, and admit us into [Page 130] the rank of the Aerial Genii, and feast us with the Gods. If the diviner sort of Philoso­phers, they will advance us to a further degree of blessedness and knowledge of it; but we shall leave their worthy Essays, and Philosophical conjectures about the happi­ness of the life to come, and wishing them an interest in it, shall attempt the knowing of this Riddle by plowing with Gods Heifer.

5. God hath, as it were, ransacked the whole Treasury of the Creation for the imbellishment of that condition into which he will instate his People, and omitted no­thing whereby it may be rendred excellent and eligible: 'Tis call'd life, and what is more, eternal life; that it is life, makes it desirable; but that this life is eternal, that makes it infinitely so. Sin when finished, brings forth death; but Religion when con­summate, brings forth life; its end is life without end. The knowledge of the happi­ness of Heaven is reserved, not reveal'd; we speak of it, as of God, not what we ought, but what we can: No man can declare to you what it is, and if he could, [Page 131] you were not able to bear it; 'Tis more then an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. 4. 17. [...]. There is both an emphasis and elegancy in the Original, lost in the Translation; 'tis glory from one Hyperbole to another Hy­perbole; 'tis [...], somewhat which is not capable of being exprest by words; raise up your souls to the highest [...], yet then they will disparage the happiness of Heaven by too low and unworthy apprehensions of it; 'tis to be limned like Agamemnens grief, only by a veil; our faculties are too weak and impotent to frame an exact idea of it. The objects we converse with are too scanty and indigent to furnish us with a notion commensurate with its perfection. Our conceptions are too narrow to let in a full and determine Map of that State. There is a great part of the Holy Land not yet discovered. We have but little more acquaintance with the particulars of our en­tertainment in the state of separation, then of that of Pre-existence (if the Hypothesis may pass for truth. Didst thou ever look within the veil, and see that perfection of [Page 132] beauty and glory which is in the holyest of all? Dost thou know the worth of that Crown, the magnificence of that Throne, the stateliness of that Mansion, the richness of that Prize, the sweetness of that Man­na, the brightness of that Glory, the gene­rousness that fruit, the purity of that joy, and happiness of that society, wherewith God will entertain his Children? Canst thou tell me what it is to know as thou art known? to be like him, to be one with him, to enter into joy, to appear in glory, to have God thy portion and exceeding great reward? Prethee tell me, if thou canst, what estate thou shalt be possessed of, who art a coheir with Christ, and shalt inherit all things, what dignities thou shalt be preferred to, whom the King of Heaven delights to honour; what trans­porting pleasures thou shalt enjoy, who art alwayes ravished with divine love, and in his imbraces whose favour is better then life? Who can tell how great that good­ness is, which God hath laid up for his? or what is that largess they shall receive from his bounty? who knows how far the helix of happiness may inlarge, or can say, Hi­therto [Page 133] shall it come and no further? Canst thou give me a bill of that fare where­with those shall be feasted which are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? Hath God told thee what portion he will give his children? or what Estate he will settle upon his Spouse? or what that Charter is he hath granted to the Citizens of the New Jerusalem? Glorious things are spoken of this City of God; but no descripti­ons, Metaphors, or resemblances which an active fancy may suggest can insinuate into our minds an express character thereof; for the Apostle tells us, It doth not yet ap­pear what we shall be; till Experience be our Tutor, we must make a vertue of Ne­cessity, and let our Ignorance increase our Devotion; whilst we are without, all these things are in Parables; but after death, he, who now looks forth at the window, and shows himself through the Lattess, Cant. 2. 9. will take the veil from his face, and the scales from our eyes, and enable us to behold the brightness of his glory; till then the summum bonum will not be unridled. No Mathema­ticks can make a Jacobs Staffe to take the [Page 134] dimensions of this State; 'tis not to be measured, though by the cubit of the San­ctuary; it hath an heighth and length, and depth, and breadth, which we cannot stand upon the Earth and find out. We know not here the sweetness of being inebriated at the Fountain: For ought we can tell, there may be some powers in our souls, that in his contracted state are wrapt up in silence and inactivity, which upon our release from this present confinement to inert and sluggish matter may awaken, unfold and dilate themselves for the enter­taining of Happiness, now, altogether un­conceiveable. But by how much the more men live in conformity to the Divine Will, and in familiar converse with the Deity, so much the more neer approaches do they make towards an acquaintance with the blessedness in which the spirits of just men made perfect are instated. Such which are in the Apostles expression, alienated from the life of God, must likewise be estranged, as from the sense, so also from the understanding of its concomitant feli­city.

6. Let our busie faculties run into never so great a variety of opinions concerning the appendices and circumstances of the happiness of Heaven, yet will this abide as an undoubted verity, that the essence of that bliss is such, that wicked men cannot, considering the nature of it, be partakers thereof; the beauty of holiness is not visi­ble to an evil eye; the fruit of the Tree of Life cannot be relished by a voluptuous Palate; the paths of pleasure in the Paradise of God, will be but as obscure and melan­cholick shades, to him which hath walked contrary to God; he will be Tantalized in the waters and under the Tree of life; he can neither enjoy this happiness nor (if possibly he could) rejoyce in it; the reason is, because he is destitute of faculties pro­portionate and analogous to such kind of objects, whereby the pleasure of them should be conveyed to the Soul; in this sense the Apostle may be understood, when he tells us, That the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned. The happiness of Man being the fruition of God as the chief­est [Page 136] good, the foundation of this enjoyment is in that communion which there is between God and Man, which consists in the assimi­lation and conformity of our actions, affecti­ons and dispositions unto the nature and goodness of God, which work, if it be not accomplished in some measure in us, it is impossible we should be happy; for God being eternally the same, cannot recede from the holiness of his own nature to have communion with us in a sinful state; there­fore we ought to endeavour a reconciliation of our selves to the purity and perfection of the Divine Being, that thereby we may be made capable of the enjoyment thereof. What fellowship can light have with dark­ness, or what concord can there be between Christ and Belial? till we lay aside the weapons of our hostility against Heaven, and heartily comply with the will of God, and entirely devote our selves by self-denial unto him, that he may be all in all, we have no ground of expectance for that happiness which knows no end.

HAving frequently asserted that true Religion completes the happiness of Humane Nature, and that it is impossible such whose minds are wholly destitute of the Principles thereof, and whose lives are irre­concileable with its practice, should arrive here to any considerable degree of that peaceable and sedate temper of soul, which indicates present happiness; or upon their departure out of this scene of life, be ad­mitted to a participation of the blessedness of the World to come; It is not improbable but some one or other which may read this Discourse, will be desirous to have an ac­count of the Nature of Religion, in such particulars at least which may conduce to their direction in the management of so important an affair as I have affirmed it is, as interesting them in the happiness of this [Page 138] life, and intitling them to that to come: That I may satisfie such a reasonable request, and improve to the best advantage I can that end which I aim at in this present Treatise, viz. to endear Religion to the world, by rendring it most rational in it self, and ad­vantagious to its Votaries; I shall attempt the Explication of it in these ensuing Pro­positions.