firft Works: elfe I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy Candlestick out of its Place, except thou repent ". III. Being bound to whatever Christ hath commanded us, we are bound to perform the most laborious and unwelcome, as well as the easiest, of his Commands. We may be sure, he hath enjoined us nothing, but what he will make poffible, nothing but what he hath a Right, nothing but what he hath Cause, to enjoin. And therefore, the Difficulty of his Precepts can never be an Excuse for not obeying them. Sometimes this Difficulty is but imaginary and what we apprehend that we cannot do at all, would we but try in a proper Manner, we fhould do with great Eafe. Sometimes it is real indeed, but of our own creating. Slight Inclinations have grown, by Indulgence or Negligence, into fettled Habits : .wilful wrong Conduct hath put Obstacles in the Way of acting right: and then we think it very grievous, that we must be at Pains to bring ourselves out of a Condition, that we needed never have brought ourselves into. Or, fuppofing any Virtue originally hard to practife, do we not often obey extremely hard In * Rev. ii. 5. junctions junctions of Men? And why not therefore thofe of God? Be the Labour ever fo great; ftill, both in the Nature of the Thing, and by the Appointment of Heaven, no one can become happy, that doth not become good: and no one is truly good, who purposely or negligently lives in the Omiffion of any Duty, or Commiffion of any Sin. Difficulty is a Reason for nothing, but exerting ourselves, and applying to God for Help: which whoever doth in earnest, will find Opposition serve only to ftrengthen his Christian Graces by Exercise here, and augment the Reward of them for ever hereafter. tures. IV. We muft obferve thofe Commands, which relate to the Government of ourselves, no less than those which refpect our Fellow-CreaMen are strangely apt to run into Extremes in this Particular. Some, on the Merit of their Abftinence from unlawful Pleasures, venture without Scruple to be ill-humoured, hard-hearted, cenforious, and unjust; while fome again place the whole of a right Character in a gay Kind of good Nature: and, either hurting, as they pretend, Nobody but themselves; or, however doing others only fuch Injuries, as they imagine Matter of Merriment; go almost almost whatever Lengths of fenfual Gratification their Defires prompt them to. Now thefe latter, far from being the harmless People, which they would have the World think them, ufually contribute more, by the unavoidable, and often forefeen, Confequences of their Vices, and the Contagion of their Examples, to bring Mifery into private Life, and Distress, if not Ruin, upon the Public, than almost any wicked Perfons, that can be mentioned befides. But were they, in these Refpects, ever fo innocent: yet our being rational Creatures, as indifpenfably binds us to Sobriety, Chastity, and Decency, as our being focial Creatures doth to Inoffenfiveness and Beneficence. A Mind immerfed in Voluptuoufnefs, nay filled with Amusements and Trifles, and attentive to them only or chiefly, is by no means in a moral State, and much lefs in a religious one. Our evident Capacity and Formation for higher and better Things, cannot but carry with it a proportionable Obligation, to the Improvement of our Understandings in the Knowledge of Truth, and of our Hearts in the Efteem of Virtue; to the Care of acting worthily and usefully amongst our Fellow-Creatures, and qualifying ourselves for 1 fpiritual but fpiritual Happiness with our Creator. Thus much even the Light of Nature will teach us. And if Revelation be confulted; there we shall find the strongest Cautions, against that Fondnefs for fumptuous Living, Delicacy, and Splendor, which brought the rich Man into the Place of Torment"; against being Lovers of Pleafures, more than Lovers of God. Scriptures, like these, are not defigned to drive Persons into unnatural Rigours and Aufterities they are defigned to reftrain them from that Habit and Study of Self-Indulgence, which being attended perhaps with the Commiffion of no flagrant Sins, looks to be an allowable Way of confuming Time; but indeed brings poor Wretches, often by quick Degrees, to intire Forgetfulness of God and themselves, and extinguishes all Attention to what deserves it most. This Lethargy of the Mind is the great Danger of a State of Prosperity and Affluence: which therefore, as many as are placed in that State, fhould continually watch against, as being totally contrary to a Spirit of Religion; and remember, that whoever fo liveth in Pleafure, as to live to it, is dead while he liveth k : Luke xvi. 19, &c. i 2 Tim. iii. 4. k I Tim. v. 6. dead to all the Purposes of Christianity here, and all the Hopes of Felicity hereafter. V. Our Saviour's Direction, that all Nations be taught to obferve every thing which he hath commanded, implies a Prohibition of teaching any thing in his Name, which he hath not commanded, either perfonally while on Earth, or by the holy Spirit of Truth after his Afcenfion. For where his Commiffion ends, there the Powers of thofe, to whom he gave it, end alfo. Still, in Matters left undetermined, or not fully determined by him, Men of Knowledge may fignify their Opinion, Men of Prudence may fuggeft their Advice, and both are to be regarded in a proper Degree. Superiors may likewife interpofe their Authority, fo far as public Order and Peace require; and, in all Things lawful, others are bound to fubmit to them. But no Man, or Number of Men, may prefume to set up their own Judgement, or their own Will, for a Law of Chrift: or add a fingle Article, as a neceffary one, to that Rule of Faith and Practice, which was once delivered unto the Saints'. Even St. Paul himself hath accurately distinguished be on one Occafion 1 Jude v. 3. tween |
