DIRECTION II.

DIRECTION II.

Several Endowments and Qualifications are necessary to enable us for the immediate practice of the Law. Particularly, we must have an inclination and propensity of our hearts thereunto; and ,2 therefore we must be well persuaded of our, reconciliation with Qod, and of our future enjoyment of the eyerlasting^Ieaseiily hagpjness, and of sufficient strength both to will and to perform all duties acceptably, until we come to the enjoyment of that happiness.

EXPLICATION.

Those means that are next to the attainment of the grand end aimed at, are first to be discovered, that we may learn how to get them by other means, expressed in the following directions. Therefore I have named here several qualifications and endowments that are necessary to make up that holy frame and state of the soul, whereby it is furnished and enabled to practise the law immediately, and that not only in the beginning, but in the continuation of that practice. And therefore, note diligendy, that these endowments must continue in us during the present life, or else our ability for an holy life will be lost t and they must be before practice, not in any distance of time, but only as the cause is before the effect. I do not say, that I have named particularly all such necessary qualifications; but this much I dare say, that he that gaineth. these, may, by the same means,,, gain any other that should be ranked with them: and this is a matter worthy of our serious consideration; for few understand that any special endowments are required to furnish us for an holy practice,, more than, for any voluntary actions. The first Adam had excellent endowments bestowed upon him for an holy practice,, when he was first created according to the image of God; and the second Adam had endowments more excellent, to enable him’ for a harder task of obedience. And seeing obedience is grown more difficult,, by reason of the opposition and temp

tations that it meeteth with since the fall of Adam, we that are to be imitators of Christ, had need have very choice endowments, as Christ had; at least as good or something better than Adam had at first, as our work is harder than his. “What king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able, with ten thousand, to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ,?” And shall we dare to rush into battle against all the powers of darkness, all worldly terrors and allurements, and our own inbred domineering corruptions, without considering whether we have sufficient spiritual furniture to stand in the evil day? yet many content themselves with such an ability to will and do their duty, as they would have to be given to men universally; whereby they are no better enabled for the spiritual battle, than the generality of the world, that lie vanquished under the wicked one; and therefore their standing is not at all secured by it. It is a hard matter to find what this universal ability is, that so many contend so earnestly for, of what it consisteth, by what means it is conveyed to us, and maintained.

Bodily agility hath spirits, nerves, ligaments, and bones to subsist by; but this spiritual universal ability seemeth to be some occult quality, that no sufficient account can be given how it is conveyed, or of what it is constituted. That none may deceive themselves, and miscarry in their enterprizes for holiness, by depending on such a weak occult quality, I have here shewed Four Endowments, of which a true ability, for the practice of holiness, must necessarily be constituted, and by which it must subsist and be maintained; I intend to shew afterwards, by what means they are given to us, and whether the inclination or propensity here mentioned be perfect or imperfect. And they are of such a mysterious nature, that some who own the necessity of endowments, to frame them for holiness, are prone to think, that less than these will serve; and that some of these frame us rather for licentiousness than holiness, as they are here placed before any actual performance of the moral law; and that some things contrary to them would put us into a better frame for holiness. Against all which surmises, I shall endeavour such a demonstration of these endowments particularly, as may gain the assent of right reason; insisting on them in the same order wherein I have placed them in the direction.

In the first place, I assert, that an inclination and propensity of heart, to the duties of the law, is necessary to frame and enable us for the immediate practice of them. And I mean not such a blind propensity as inanimate creatures and brutes have to their natural operations, but such a one as is meet for intelligent creatures, whereby they are, by the conduct of reason, prone and bent to approve and choose their duty, and averse to the practice of sin. And therefore I have intimated, that the three other endowments, mentioned in the direction, are subservient to this as the chief of all, which is sufficient to make it a rational propensity. This is CQntraryto those, that, out of zeal for obedience, but not according to knowledge, contend so earnestly for free will, as a necessary and sufficient endowment to enable us to perform our duty, when once we are convinced of it, and of our obligation to it; and who extol this endowment, as the great benefit that universal redemption hath blessed all mankind with; though they consider this free will without any actual inclination to good; yea, they cannot but acknowledgethat, in most of mankind that have it, it is incumbered with an actual bent and propensity of the heart altogether to evil. Such a free will as this is, can never free us from slavery to sin and Satan, and fit us for the practice of the law; and therefore is not worthy the pains of those that contend so hotly for it. Neither is the will so free as is necessaiy for the practice of holi^ ness, until it be endued with an inclination and propensity thereunto; as may appear by the following arguments.

First, The duties of the law are of such a nature, that they cannot possibly be performed while there is wholly an aversion, or mere indifferency of the heart to the performance of them, and no good inclination and propensity towards the practice of them, because the chief of all the commandments is, to love the IiOrd with our whole heart, might and soul; to love every thing that is in him; to love his will, and all his ways, and to like them as good. And all duties must be jnfluenced, in their performance, by. this Jove; we must delight to do the will of God; it must be sweeter to * us than the honey or honey comb, Psalm xl. 8. Job xxxiii. 2. Psalm lxiii. 1. cxix. 20. and xix. 10. And this love, liking, delight, longing, thirsting, sweet relishing, must be continued to the end; and the first indeliberate motion of lust must be regulated by love to God and our neighbour; and sin must be lusted against, Gal. v. 17. and abhorred, Psalm xxxvi. 4. If it were true obedience (as some would havent) to love our duty only as a market man loveth foul ways to the market, or as a sick man loveth an unpleasant medicinal potion, or as a captive slave loveth his hard work for fear of a greater evil; then it might be performed with averseness, or want of inclination; but we must love it, as the market man gain, as die sick man health, as pleasant meat and drink, as the captive liberty. Doubtless there can be no power in the will for this kind of service, without an agreeableness of our inclination to the will of God, a heart according Id his own heart, an aversion of our hearts from sin, and a kind of antipathy against sin; for we know the proverb, ” Like loveth like.” There must be an agreeableness in the .person or thing beloved, to the disposition of the lover. Love to God must flow from a clean heart, 1 Tim. i. 5; a heart cleansed from evil propensities and inclinations. And reason will tell us that the first motions of lust which fall not under our choice and deliberations, cannot be avoided without a fixed propensity of the henrt to holiness.

Second, The image of God (wherein God, according to his infinite wisdom, judged it meet to frame the first Adam in righteousness, and true holiness and uprightness, Gen. i. 27. Eph. iv. 24. Eccles. vii. 29.) consisted in an actual bent and propensity of heart to the. practice of holiness: not in a mere power of will to choose good or evil j for this in itself, is neither holy nor unholy, but’ only a ground work, on which either the image of God, or of Satan may be drawn: nor in an indifference of propensity to the choice of sin or duty; for this wicked disposition in an intelligent creature that kiiQweth his duty, and fitteth us only to halt between God and Baal. God set Adam’s soul at first wholly in a right bent and inclination, though Adam might act contrary to it, if he would; as we may be prevailed upon to do some things contrary to our natural inclinations: and it is easy to fail of our duty, though great preparation and furniture be required for the performance, of it. The second Adam also, the Lord Jesus Christ, was born an holy thing, Luke i. 35. with a holy disposition of his soul, and propensity to goodness. And can we reasonably hope to arise to the life of holiness, from which the first Adam fell, or to be imitators of Christ, since duty is made so difficult by the fall, if we be not renewed in a measure according to the same .image of God, and enabled with such a propensity and inclination i

3d. Original corruption (whereby we are dead to God and godliness from the birth, and made willing slaves to the performance of all actual sins, until the Son of God make us free) consisted* in a propensity and inclination of the heart to sin, and averseness to holiness. Without this propensity to sin, what can that “law of sin in our members be, that waVeth against the law of our mind, and leadeth us captive to the service of sin?” Rom. vii. 23. What is that poison in us, for which men may be called serpents, vipers? What is that spirit of whoredoms in men, by reason of which the}’ will not frame th^ir doings to turn to God? Hos. v. 4. How is the tree first corrupt, and then its fruit corrupt? Matth. xii. 33. How can man be said to be abominable and filthy, that drinketh iniquity like water ? Job xv. 16. Howshould the mind of the flesh be continual enmity to the law of God ? Horn. xiii. 7. I know there is also a blindness of understanding, and other thipgs belonging to original corruption,which conduce to this evil propensity of the will; but yet this propensity itself is the great evil, and indwelling sin, which produceth all actual sins; and must of necessity be removed or restrained, by restoring the contrary inclination, wherein the image of God consistelh; or else we shall be backward and reprobate to every good work, and whatever freedom the will hath, it shall be employed only in the service of sin.

Fourth. God restoreth his people to holiness, by giving to them ” a hew heart, and a new spirit^ and taking away the heart of stone out of their flesh, and giving them an heart of flesh,” Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27; and he circumciseth their heart to love him with their whole heart and soul. And he requireth, that we should be transformed “in the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is his acceptable will,”, Rom. xii. 2, and David prayeth for the same end, ” that God would create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him,” Psal. li. 10. If any one can judge, that this new, clean, circumcised heart, this heart of flesh, this new right spirit, is such a one as hath no actual inclination and propensity to good, but only a power to choose good or evil, undeservedly called a free-will, with a present inclination to evil, or an indifference of propensity to both contraries, it will not be worth my labour to convince such a judgment: only let him consider, whether David could account such a heart to be clean and right when he prayed, Psal. cxix. 36. “Incline mine heart unto diy testimonies, and not to covetous^ ness.”

The Second Endowment necessary to enable us for the immediate practice of holiness, and concurring

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with the two others that follow, to work in us a rational propensity to this practice, is that we be well perstiadetl of .ouyr. re&onclU&ioJX»ith God. We must reckon, that the breach of amity which sin hath made between God and us, is made up by^a firm reconciliation to his love and favour. And herein I include the great benefit of justification, as the means whereby we are reconciled to Goi, which as described in scripture, either by forgiving our sins, or by the imputation of righteousness to us, Rom. iv. 5, 6, 7. because both are contained in one and the same justifying act; as one act of illumination comprehends expulsion of darkness, and introduction of light, one act of repentance containeth mortification of sin, and vivification to righteousness; and every motion from any thing to its contrary, is but one and the same, though it may be expressed by divers names, with respect either to the two contrary terms, the one of which is abolished, the other introduced by it. This is a great mystery (contrary to the apprehensions, not only of the vulgar, but of some learned divines) that we must be reconciled to God, and justified by the remission of our sins, and imputation oi righteousness, before any sincere obedience to the law; that we ma)‘be enabled for the practice of it. They account, that this doctrine tendeth to the subversion of a holy practice, and is a. great pillar of Antinomianism; and that the only way to establish sincere obedience, is to make it rather a condition to be performed before all actual justification, and reconciliation with God. Therefore some late divines have thought fit to bring the doctrine of former Protestants concerning justification to their anvil, and to hammer it into another form, that it might be more free from Antinomianism, and effectually to secure a . holy practice. But their labour is vain and pernicious, tending to Antinomian profaneness, or painted hypocrisy at best; neither can the true practice of holiness be secure, except the persuasion of our justification arid reconciliation ^with God, be first obtained without the works of the law, that we may be enabled thereby to do. our death in sin proceeded from the guilt of the first sin of Adam, and the sentence denounced against it, Gen. ii. 17. and that it is still maintained in us by the guilt of sin, and the curse of the law; and that spiritual life will never be given us, to fiy e us from that dominion, except this guilt and curse be removed from us ; which is done by actual justification, Gal. iii. 13, 14* Rom. vi. 14. And this is sufficient to make us despair of living to God in holiness, while we apprehend ourselves to be under the curse and wrath of-God, by reason of our transgressions and sins still lying upon- us, Ezek. xxxiii. 10. , Third. The nature of the duties of the law is such, as , requireth an apprehension of our reconciliation with God, and his hearty love and favour towards us for the doing of them. The great duty is love to God with t> their whole heart, and not such a_cMtemplatiyeJove as philosophers may have to the object of sciences, which they are concerned in no furtner than to please their .fancies in the knowledge of them ; but am-acticaliove, whereby we are willing that God should be absolute Lord and governor over us and all the world, to dispose in us and all others according to his will, as to our temporal and everlasting condition, and that he should be the only portion and happiness of all those that are happy; a love whereby we like eveiy thing in him as he is our Lord j his justice as well as any other attribute, without’wishing or desiring that he were better than he 5s; and whereby we desire that his will be done upon us, and all others, whether prosperity or adversity, life or death ; and whereby we can heartily praise him for all things, and delight in our obedience to him, in doing his will, though we suffer that which is everso grievous to us, even present death. Consider these things well, and you may easily perceive, that our spirits are not in a fit franie for the doing of them, while we apprehend ourselves under the curse and wrath of God, or while we are under prevailing suspicions that God will prove an enemy to us at last. Slavish fear whereby we judge ourselves to be under , the guilt of sin, and the wrath of God, is accounted an evil conscience in scripture, though it perform its office truly; because it is caused by the evil of sin, and will itself be a cause of our committing more sin, until it can judge us to be justified from all sin, and received into the favour of God. Love, which is the end of the law, must proceed from a good conscience, as well as from any other cleanness of heart, 1 Tim. i. 5. David’s mouth could not be opened to shew forth the praise of God, until he was delivered from blood guiltiness, Psal. li. 14, 15. This evil, guilty conscience, whereby we judge that God is our enemy, and that his justice is against us to our everlasting condemnation, by reason of our sins, doth strongly maintain and increase the dominion of sin and Satan in us, and working most mischievous effects in the soul against godliness, even to bring the soul to hate God, and to wish there were no God, no heaven, no hell, so we might escape the punishment, due to us. It so disaffecteth people toward God, that they cannot endure to think, or speak, or hear of him and his law; but strive rather to put him out of their, minds, by fleshly pleasures and worldly employments.And thus they are alienated from all true religion, only, blinding it and stopping the mouth of it. It produceth zeal in many outside religious performances, and also false religion, idolatry and the most inhuman superstition in the world. 1 have often considered, by what manner of working any sin could effectually destroy the whole image of God in the first Adam ; and 1 conclude, >it was by working first an evil guilty conscience in. hint, whereby he judged that the just God was against him, and cursed him for that one sin. And this was enough to work a shameful nakedness by disorderly lusts, a turning his love wholly from .God to the creature, and a desire to be hidden from the presence of God, Gen. iii. 8, 10, which was a total destruction of the image of God’s holiness. And we have cause, to judge, that from the same cause proceedeth the conti

»ual malice, rancour, rage and blasphemy of the Devil, and many notorious wicked men, against God and godliness. Some may think Job uncharitable in suspecting, not merely that his sons had sinned, but that they had been so abominably wicked as to curse God in their hearts, Job i. 5. But Job well understood, that if the guilt of any ordinary sin lies upon the conscience, it will make the soul to wish secretly, that God was not, or that he were not so just a judge; which is a secret cursing of God, that cannot be avoided, until our conscience be purged from the guilt of sin, by the offering of Christ for us, which was then figured out bv the burnt-offering of Job for his sons.

Fifth. God hath abundantly discovered to us, in his word, that his method in bringing meri from sin to holiness of life, is, first to make tin m know that he-loveth them, and that their sins are blotted out. W hen he gave the ten commandments on mount Sinai, he first discovered himself to be their God, that had given them a sure pledge of his salvation, by their delivery from Egypt, in the preface, Exod. xx. 2. And during all the time of the Old Testament, God was pleased to make the entrance into religion to be by circumcision; which was not only a sign, but also a seal of the righteousness of faith, whereby God justifieth people, while they are considered as ungodly, Rom. iv. 11, 15. And this seal was administered to children of eight days, old, before they could perform any condition of sincere obedience, for their justification, that their furniture for a holy practice might be ready beforehand. Furthermore, in the time of the Old Testament, God appointed divers washings, and the blood of bulls ai.d goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, to prepare and sanctify them for other parts of his worship in his tabernacle and temple: to figure out hi» purging their consciences from dead works by the hiood of Christ, that they might serve the living God, Heb. ix. 10, 13, 14, 22. This, I say, was then figurative sanctilication, as the word sanctification is take* in a large sense, comprehending all things that prepare us for the service of God, chiefly the remission of sin^ Heb. x. 10, 14, 18. Though if it be taken in a strict sense, respecting only our conformity to the law, it must necessarily be placed after justification, according to the usual method of Protestant divines. God also minded them “of the. necessity of purging away their guilt first, that their service might be acceptable, by commanding them to offer the sin-offering before the burnt-offering, Let. v. 8. and xvi. 3, 11. And lest the guilt of their sins should pollute the service of God, notwithstanding all their particular expiations, God was pleased to appoint a general atonement for all thei* sins one day every year, wherein the scape-goat was “to bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited,” Lev. xvi. 22, 34. Under the New Testa- ment God useth the same method, in loving us first, and washing us from our sins by the blood of Christ, that he may make us priests, to offer the sacrifices of praise, and all good Works to God, even the Father. He entereth us into his service, by washing away our sins in baptism: he feedeth and strengthened us for his service by remission of sins, given to us in theblood of Christ at the Lord’s supper: he exhorteth us to obey him, because he hath already loved us, and our sins are already pardoned. “Forgive one another,., even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children: and walk in love, as Christ hath loved us,” Eph. iv. 32and v. 1, 2. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.. Love hot the world, neither the things that are in the world,” 1 Jo. ii. 12, 15. I might quote abundance of texts of the same nature. We may clearly see by all this, that God hath accounted it a matter of great importancer and hath condescended to take wonderful, care in providing plentiful means, both under the Old and New Testament, that his people might be first ckansed from guilt and reconciled to himself, to fit

them for the acceptable practice of holiness. Away then with all the contrary methods of the new divinity.

The Third Endowment necessary to enable us for the practice of holiness, without which, a persuasion of our reconciliation with God would be of little efficacy to work in us a rational propensity to it, is, that we be

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practice as a cause ^isppshi£ and alluring us to it. This assertion hath several sorts of adversaries to oppose it. Some account, that a persuasion of our own future happiness, before we have persevered in sincere obedience, tendeth to licentiousness; and that the way to do good works, is rather to make them a condition necessary for the procuring of this persuasion. Others condemn all works that we are allured or stirred up to by the future enjoyment of the heavenly happiness, as legal, mercenary, flowing from self-love, and not from any pure love to God ; and they figure out sincere godliness by a man bearing fire in one hand, to burn up heaven, and water in the other to quench hell; intimating, that the true service of God must not proceed at all from hope of reward, or fear of punishment, but only from love, To establish the truth asserted, against the errors that are so contrary to it, and to each other, I shall propose the ensuing considerations.

1. The nature’of the duties of the law, is such, that they cannot be sincerely and universally practised without this endowment. That this endowment must be present in us, is sufficiently proved already, by all that I have said concerning the necessity of the persuasion of our firm reconciliation with God by our justification, to prepare us for this practice; because that includeth a persuasion of this future happiness, or else it is of little . worth. All that I have to add here, is, that sincere obedience cannot rationally subsist, except it be allured, encouraged, and supported by this persuasion. Let me therefore, suppose a Sadducee believing no happiness

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God with his whole heart, might, and soul? Will he not think it reasonable, rather to lessen and moderate his love towards God, lest he should be over much troubled to part with him by death? We account it most reasonable to sit loose in our affections from things that we must part with. Can such a one be satisfied with the enjoyment of God as his happiness? will he not rather account, th.it the enjoyment of God and all religious duties, are vanities as well as other things; because in a little time we shall have no more benefit by them, than if they had .never been? How can such a one be willing to lay down his life for the sake of God, when, by his death, he must part with God, as well as with other things? How can he willingly choose afflictions rather than sin, when he shall be more miserable in this life for it, and not at all happy hereafter? I grant, if afflictions come unavoidably upon such a person, he may reasonably judge, that patience is better for him than impatience; but it will displease him, that he is forced to the use of such a virtue, and he will be prone to fret and murmur at his creator, and, to wish he had never been, rather than to endure such miseries, and to be comforted only with vain transitory enjoyments. I’think I have said enough to shew how unfurnished such a man is for holiness. And that he will burn -up heaven, and quench hell, that he may serve God out of love, doth thereby leave himself little better furnished than the Sadducee. The one denieth them, the other will not have them at all to be considered in this case.

2. The sure hope of the glory of heaven, is made use of ordinarily by God since the fall of Adam, as an encouragement to the practice of holiness, as the scripture doth abundantly shew. Christ, the great pattern of holiness, “for the joy that was set before him, enh dured the cross, despising the shame,” Heb. xii. 2.—« And though I cannot say, that the first Adam had such a sure hope, to preserve him in innocency; yet he had instead of it, the present possession of an earthly par radise, and a happy estate in it, which he knew would last, if !ie continued in holiness, or be changed into a better happiness. The apostles did not faint under affliction, because they knew that it wrought for them “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glorv,” 2 Cor. iv. 16,17. The believing Hebrews “took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance,” Heb. x. 34. The apostle Paul accounts all his sutferings unprofitable, were it not for a glorious resurrection; and that christians would be of all men most miserable, and that the doctrine of the epicures were rather to be chosen; “let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.” And he exorts the Corinthians to be “abundant in the work of the Lord, knowing that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord,” 1 Cor. xv. 58. As worldly-hope keepeth the world at work in their various employments; for God giveth his people the hope of his glory, to keep them close to his service, Heb. vi. 11, 12. 1 John, iii. 3. And it is such a sure hope as shall never make them ashamed, Rom. v. 5. Those that think it below the excellency of their love, to work from a hope of a heavenly reward, do therein- advance their love beyond the love of the apostles and primitive saints, and even of Christ himself.

3. This persuasion of pur future enjoyment of everlasting happiness cannot tend to licentiousness, if we understand well, that perfect holiness is a necessary part of that happiness, and that though we have but a tide to that happiness by free justification and adoption, yet we must go to the possession of it in a way of holiness, 1 John iii. lr 2, 3. Neither is it legal or mercenary, to be moved by this persuasion; seeing the persuasion itself is not gotten by the works of the law, but by free grace through faith, Gal. v. 5. And if it be a working from self-love; yet, for certain, it is not that earn A stlf-love which the scripture condemneth as the mother of sinfulness, 2 Tim. iii. 2; but a holy self-love, inclining us to prefer God above the flesh and the word, such as God directeth us unto, when he exhortethusto save ourselves, Acts ii. 40.1 Tim. iv. 16. And it is so far from being contrary to the pure love of God, that it brings us to love God more purely and entirely. The more good and beneficial We apprehend God to us to all eternity, doubtless the more lovely God will be to us, and our affections will be the more: inflamed towards him. God will not be loved Els a barren wilderness, a land of darkness to Us, neither will he be served for nought, Jer. ii. 31. Isa. xiv. 19. He would think it a dishonour to him to be owned by us as our God, if he had not prepared for us a city, Heb. xi. 16. And he draweth us to love him by the cords of a man, such cords as the love of man useth to be drawn by, even by his own love to us, in laying his benefits before us, IIos. xi. 4. Therefore, the way for us to keep ourselves in the love of God is to look for his mercy unto eternal life, Jude verse 21.

The Last Endowment, for the same end as the former, is, that we will be persuaded of sufficient strength both to will and perform our duty acceptably, until we come to the enjoyment of the heavenly happiness.-— This is contrary to the error^ of those that account it sufficient, if we have strength to practise holiness, if we will, or to will it, if we please ; and this is sufficient strength which they earnestly contend for, as a great benefit bestowed on all mankind by universal redemption. It is also contrary to the error of those that think the practice of godliness and wickedness to be alike easy, excepting only some difficulty in the first alterations of vicious customs, and in bearing persecutions, which they ascount to be a rare case; since the kingdoms of the world have been brought to the profession : of Christianity: or that think that God required! of men only to do their endeavour, that is what they can do; and it is nonsense to say they cannot do what they can do. According to their judgment, it is needless to concern ourselves much, about sufficient strength for

but to be full of holy love and desires: yet even the restraining’the execution of corrupt lusts, and crossing them by contrary actings, is, in many cases, like ” the cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye,” Mat. v. 29, 30. If obedience be so easy, how came it to pass that the heathens generally did those things, for which their own consciences condemned them as worthy of death? Rom. i. 32; and that many among us seek to enter into this ” strait gate, and are not able,“~Luke xiii. 24 j’and break so many vows and purposes of obedience, and fallback to the practice of their lusts, though, in the mean time, the fears of eternal damnation press hard upon their consciences?

As to those that find persecution for religion to be so rare a thing, in late days, they have cause to be suspected that they are of the world, and therefore the world lotfeth its own; else they would find the national profession of religion will not secure those that are truly godly from several sorts of persecutions. And suppose men do not persecute us for religion, yet there is great difficulty in bearing great injuries from men on oAer accounts, and losses, poverty, bodily pains, long diseases, and untimely deaths, from the ordinary providence of God, with such hearty love to God, and to injurious men for his sake, and such a patient acquiescence in his will, as the law of God requireth. -1 acknowledge that the work of God is easy and pleasant to those Whom God rightly furnisheth with endowments for it; but those that assert it to be easy to men, in their common condition, shew their imprut’ence -in contradicting the general experience of heathens and -christians. Though many duties do hot require much “labour of body or mind, and might be done with ease, if we were willing, yet it is easier to remove a mountain, than to move and incline the heart to will and affect’the doing of them. I need not concern myself with those’ that account that all have sufficient strength for, a holy practice, because they can do their endeavour,""that is^ what they can do; for Ood requireth actuai fulfilling of his- commands. What, if by our. endeavours we can do nothing in any measure according to the rule, shall the law be put off with no performance f and shall such endeavours be accounted sufficient holiness? And what if we cannot so much as endeavour in a right way? If a man’s ability were the measure of acceptable duty, the commands of the law would signify very little.

3. The wisdom of God hath ever furnished people with a good persuasion of a sufficient strength, that they might be enabled both to will and to do their duty. The first Adam was furnished with such a strength; and we have no cause to think that he was ignorant of it, or that he needed to fear that he should be left to his own corruptions, because he had. them not in him, until he produced’them in himseif, by sinning against strength : and when he had lost that strength, he could not recover the practice of holiness, until he was acquainted with a better strength, whereby the head of Satan should be bruised, Gen. in. is. Our Lord Christ, doubtless, knew the infinite power of his Deity to enable him for all that he was to do and suffer in our nature. He knew the Lord God would help him, “therefore he should not be confounded,” Isa. i. 7. The scripture assureth what plentiful assurance of strength God gave to Moses, Joshua, G ideon^ when he called them to great employments: and to the Israelites, when he called them to subdue the land of Canaan. Christ would have the sons.of Zebedee to consider, whether they were able “to drink of his cup, and to be baptized with the baptism that he was to be baptized with,” Mat. xx. 22. Paul encourageth believers to the life of holiness, by persuading them that sin shall not prevail to get the dominion over them, because ” they are not under the law, but under grace,” Rom. iv. 13, 14. And he exhorteth them to ” be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, that they might be able the wiles of the Devil,” Eph.vi. 10,11. believers, ” not to love the world, nor the things of the world,” because they were ” strong, ahd had overcome the wicked one,” 1 John ii. 14, 15.

They that were called of God, heretofore, to work miracles, were first acquainted with the gift of power to work them; and no wise man will attempt to do them, without knowledge of the gift: even so, when men that are dead in sin are called to do the works of a holy life, which are in them great miracles, God maketh a discovery of the gift of power unto them, that he may encourage them, in a rational way, to such a wonderful enterprize.

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