upon; the rule itself is, that speedily, without any pro- SERM. craftination or delay, we should apply ourselves to the ob- XLVIII. fervance of God's commandments; the practice of which rule it fhall be my endeavour to recommend and press.

agimus

unquam.

It is a common practice of men, that are engaged in bad courses, which their own confcience difcerneth and disapproveth, to adjourn the reformation of their lives to a farther time, fo indulging themselves in the prefent commiffion of fin, that yet they would seem to purpose and promise themselves hereafter to repent and take up: few Victuros refolve to perfift finally in an evil way, or despair of being femper, nec one day reclaimed; but immediately and effectually to fet vivimus upon it, many deem unfeasonable or needlefs; it will, they Manil. 4. prefume, be foon enough to begin to-morrow, or next day, a month or a year hence, when they shall find more commodious opportunity, or fhall prove better difpofed thereto: in the mean time with Solomon's fluggard, Yet, fay Prov. vi. 10 they, a little fleep, a little flumber, a little folding of the hands: let us but neglect this duty, let us but satisfy this appetite, let us but enjoy this bout of pleasure; hereafter, God willing, we mean to be more careful, we hope that we shall become more fober: fo like bad debtors, when our confcience dunneth us, we always mean, we always promise to pay; if she will stay awhile, the fhall, we tell her, be fatisfied; or like vain spendthrifts, we see our estate fly, yet presume that it will hold out, and at length we fhall reserve enough for our ufe. Eis aupiov Tà σredaia, Plut. in PeLet ferious bufinefs flay till the morrow, was a faying that lop coft dear to him who faid it; yet we in our greatest concerns follow him.

crede mibi,

vam. Mart.

But how fallacious, how dangerous, and how mischiev- Non eft, ous this manner of proceeding is; how much better and fapientis dimore advisable it is, after the example propounded in our cere, vitext, speedily to betake ourselves unto the discharge of 16. our debt and duty to God, the following confiderations will plainly declare.

• Recognofce fingulos, confidera univerfos, nullius non vita fpectat in craftinum; non enim vivunt, sed victuri funt. Sen. Ep. 45.

SERM. 1. We may confider, that the observance of God's comXLVIII. mandments (an obfervance of them proceeding from an

13.

27.

Rom. ii. 6.

17.

15.

habitual difpofition of mind, in a conftant tenor of practice) is our indispensable duty, our main concernment, our only way to happiness; the neceffary condition of our attaining falvation; that alone, which can procure God's love and favour toward us; that unto which all real blessings here, and all bliss hereafter, are infeparably annexed: Eccl. xii. Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man; (the whole duty, the whole defign, the whole perfection, the fum of our wifdom, and our happiness.) Matt. xix. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments: The Pfal. xi. 7. righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth Prov. xv. 9. behold the upright: God will render to every man according to his works: these are oracles indubitably clear, and infallibly certain; thefe are immovable terms of juftice between God and man, which never will, never can be reMatt. v. 18. laxed; being grounded on the immutable nature of God, Luke xvi. and eternal reafon of things: if God had not decreed, if Pfal. cxix. he had not faid these things, they would yet affuredly be true; for it is a foul contradiction to reafon, that a man ever should please God without obeying him; it is a grofs absurdity in nature, that a man should be happy without being good; wherefore all the wit in the world cannot devife a way, all the authority upon earth (yea, I dare fay, even in heaven itfelf) cannot establish a condition, befide faithful obfervance of God's law, that can fave, or make us happy: from it there can be no valid difpenfation, without it there can be no effectual absolution, for it there can be no acceptable commutation; nor, in defect thereof, will any faith, any profeffion, any trick or pretence whatever, avail or fignify any thing: whatever expedient to supply its room superstition, mistake, craft, or presumption may recommend, we shall, relying thereon, be certainly deluded. If therefore we mean to be saved, (and are we so wild as not to mean it?) if we do not renounce felicity, (and do we not then renounce our wits?) to become virtuous, to proceed in a courfe of obedience, is a work that neceffarily must be performed: and why

then should we not inftantly undertake it? wherefore do SERM. we demur or stick at it? how can we at all reft quiet, XLVIII. while an affair of fo vaft importance lieth upon our hands, or until our mind be freed of all uncertainty and fufpenfe about it? Were a probable way fuggefted to us of acquiring great wealth, honour, or pleasure, fhould we not quickly run about it? could we contentedly sleep, till we had brought the business to a fure or hopeful iffue? and why with less expedition or urgency fhould we pursue the certain means of our prefent fecurity and comfort, of our final falvation and happiness? In doing fo, are we not ftrangely inconfiftent with ourselves?

3.

Again, difobedience is the certain road to perdition; that which involveth us in guilt and condemnation, that which provoketh God's wrath and hatred against us, that which affuredly will throw us into a state of eternal forrow and wretchedness: The foolish shall not ftand in God's Pfal. v. 5. fight; he hateth all the workers of iniquity: If ye do not Luke xiii. repent, ye shall perish: The wicked shall be turned into hell, Pfal. ix. 17. and all the people that forget God: The unrighteous shall 1 Cor. vi. 9. not inherit the kingdom of God: The wicked shall go into Matt.xxv. everlasting punishment: these are denunciations no lefs 46. vii. 21. fure than severe, from that mouth, which is never opened in vain; from the execution whereof there can be no fhelter or refuge. And what wife man, what man in his right fenfes, would for one minute ftand obnoxious to them? Who, that anywife tendereth his own welfare, would

one step forward in fo perilous and deftructive a courfe? the farther in which he proceedeth, the more he difcofteth from happiness, the nearer he approacheth to

ruin.

In other cafes common fenfe prompteth men to proceed : otherwise; for who, having rendered one his enemy, that : far overmatcheth him, and at whofe mercy he standeth, will not instantly sue to be reconciled? Who, being seized by a pernicious disease, will not hafte to feek a cure? Who, being fallen into the jaws of a terrible danger, will not nimbly leap out thence? And fuch plainly is our cafe: while we perfift in fin, we live in enmity and defiance with

SERM, the Almighty, who can at his pleasure crush us; we lie XLVIII. under a fatal plague, which, if we do not seasonably re

pent, will certainly deftroy us; we incur the most dreadful of all hazards, abiding in the confines of death and destruction; God frowning at us, guilt holding us, hell gaping for us: every finner is, according to the Wife Man's Prov. xxiii. expreffion, as he that lieth down in the midst of the fea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a maft. And he that is in fuch a cafe, is he not mad or fenfelefs, if he will not forthwith labour to fwim out thence, or make all speed to get down into a fafer place? Can any man with comfort lodge in a condition fo difmally ticklish?

34.

2. We may confider, that, in order to our final welfare, we have much work to dispatch, the which requireth as earnest care and painful induftry, fo a competent long time; which, if we do not presently fall on, may be wanting, and thence our work be left undone, or imperfect. To conquer and correct bad inclinations, to render our fenfual appetites obfequious to reason, to compose our paffions into a right and steady order, to cleanse our fouls from vanity, from perverseness, from oth, from all vicious distempers, and in their room to implant firm habits of virtue; to get a clear knowledge of our duty, with a ready difpofition to perform it; in fine, to season our minds with holy affections, qualifying us for the presence of God, and conversation with the blessed spirits above; these are things that must be done, but cannot be done in a trice; it is not dictum factum, as foon done as faid; but Rom. ii. 7. únoμový pyov áyadoũ, a patient continuance in well doing, is needful to achieve it; for it no time can be redundant; the longest life can hardly be sufficient: Art is long, and life is short, may be an aphorism in divinity as well as in phyfic; the art of living well, of preserving our soul's health, and curing its diftempers, requireth no less time to com- pass it, than any other art or science.

Οὐ καθεύου. σιν ἡμῖν χου ρηγεῖ βοήθεια αν ὁ Θεός,

ἀλλὰ πονου μένοις. Chryf, ad Ech. λoy.

Virtue is not a mushroom, that springeth up of itself in one night, when we are asleep, or regard it not; but a delicate plant, that groweth flowly and tenderly, needing much pains to cultivate it, much care to guard it, much

iftud pa

tam facile

1.

time to mature it, in our untoward foil, in this world's SERM. unkindly weather: happiness is a thing too precious to be XLVIII. purchased at an easy rate; heaven is too high to be come at without much climbing; the crown of blifs is a prize too noble to be won without a long and a tough conflict. Neither is vice a fpirit, that will be conjured down by a charm, or with a prefto driven away; it is not an adversary, that can be knocked down at a blow, or dispatched with a ftab. Whoever fhall pretend that at any time, O quam eafily, with a celerity, by a kind of legerdemain, or by any rum pumysterious knack, a man may be fettled in virtue, or con- tant, quibus verted from vice, common experience abundantly will con- videtur! fute him; which fheweth, that a habit otherwise (fetting Quint. xii. miracles afide) cannot be produced or destroyed, than by a constant exercise of acts suitable or oppofite thereto; and that fuch acts cannot be exercised without voiding all impediments, and framing all principles of action, (such as temper of body, judgment of mind, influence of custom,) to a compliance; that who by temper is peevish or choleric, cannot, without mastering that temper, become patient or meek; that who from vain opinions is proud, cannot, without confidering away those opinions, prove humble; that who by cuftom is grown intemperate, cannot, without weaning himself from that custom, come to be fober; that who, from the concurrence of a forry nature, fond conceits, mean breeding, and scurvy usage, is covetous, cannot, without draining all those sources of his fault, be turned into liberal. The change of our mind is one of the greatest alterations in nature, which cannot be compassed in any way, or within any time we pleafe; but it muft proceed on leisurely and regularly, in fuch order, by fuch steps, as the nature of things doth permit; it must be wrought by a resolute and laborious perfeverance; by a watchful application of mind, in voiding prejudices, in waiting for advantages, in attending to all we do; by forcible wrefting our nature from its bent, and swimming against the current of impetuous defires; by a patient disentangling ourselves from practices most agreeable and familiar to us; by a wary fencing with temptations, by