66 66 purchased with money; *if a man should give "all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. † I could pine and macerate "my body, and undergo many hardships and trou❝bles, but I cannot get all my corruptions starved, nor my affections wholly weaned from earthly things: there are still some worldly desires lurking "in my heart, and those vanities that I have shut "out of the doors, are always getting in by the "windows. I am many times convinced of my own "meanness, of the weakness of my body, and the "far greater weakness of my soul; but this doth "rather beget indignation and discontent, than true humility in my spirit; and though I should come "to think meanly of myself, yet I cannot endure "that others should think so too. In a word, when "I reflect on my highest and most specious attain"ments, I have reason to suspect, that they are all "but the effects of nature, the issues of self-love "acting under several disguises: and this principle "is so powerful and so deeply rooted in me, that I can never hope to be delivered from the dominion "of it. I may toss and turn as a door on the hinges, but can never be clear off, or be quite unhinged of self, which is still the centre of all 'my motions. So that all the advantage I can "draw from the discovery of religion, is but to see "at a huge distance that felicity which I am not able "to reach like a man in a shipwreck, who discerns "the land, and envies the happiness of those who are there, but thinks it impossible for himself to get ashore." 66 66 The unreasonableness of these fears. These, I say, or such like desponding thoughts, may arise in the minds of those persons who begin to conceive somewhat more of the nature and ex* Acts, viii. 20. t Cant. viii. 7. cellency of religion than before. They have spied the land, and seen that it is exceeding good; that it floweth with milk and honey; but they find they have the children of Anak to grapple with; many powerful lusts and corruptions to overcome, and they fear they shall never prevail against them.But why should we give way to such discouraging suggestions? why should we entertain such unreasonable fears, which damp our spirits, and weaken our hands, and augment the difficulties of our way? Let us, encourage ourselves, my dear friend, let us encourage ourselves with those mighty aids we are to expect in this spiritual warfare, for greater is he that is for us, than all that can rise up against us; The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.* Let us be strong in the Lord, and the power of his might; for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. God hath a tender regard unto the souls of men, and is infinitely willing to promote their welfare: he hath condescended to our weakness and declared with an oath, that he hath no pleasure in our destruction. There is no such thing as despite or envy lodged in the bosom of that ever blessed being, whose name and nature is love. He created us at first in a happy condition ; and now, when we are fallen from it, he hath laid help upon one that is mighty to save,† hath committed the care of our souls to no meaner person than the eternal Son of his love. It is he that is the Captain of our salvation; and what enemies can be too strong for us, when we are fighting under his banners? Did not the Son of God come down from the bosom of his Father and pitch his tabernacle amongst the sons of men, that he might recover and propagate the divine life, and restore the image of God in their souls? All the mighty works which he performed; all the sad afflictions which he sustained, had this Deut. xxxiii. 27. + Psalm lxxxix. 19. for their scope and design; for this did he labour and toil; for this did he bleed and die: He was with child; he was in pain, and hath he brought forth nothing but wind? Hath he wrought no deliverance in the earth? * Shall he not see the travail of his soul? Certainly it is impossible that this great contrivance of heaven should prove abortive, that such a mighty undertaking should fail and miscarry. It hath already been effectual for the salvation of many thousands, who were once as far from the kingdom of heaven as we can suppose ourselves to be; and our High Priest continueth for ever, aud is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. He is tender and compassionate; he knoweth our infirmities, and had experience of our temptations : A bruised reed will he not break, and smoaking flax will he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. He hath sent out his Holy Spirit, whose sweet, but powerful breathings are still moving up and down in the world, to quicken and revive the souls of men, and awaken them unto the sense and feeling of those divine things for which they were made; and is ready to assist such weak and languishing creatures as we are, in our essays towards holiness and felicity; and when once it hath taken hold of a soul, and kindled in it the smallest spark of divine love, it will be sure to preserve and cherish, and bring it forth into a flame, which many waters shall not quench, neither shall the floods be able to drown it. § Whenever this day begins to dawn, and the day-star to arise in the heart, ¶ it will easily dispel the powers of darkness, and make ignorance and folly, and all the corrupt and selfish affections of men, flee away as fast before it as the shades of night when the sun cometh out of his chambers for the path of the just is as the shining : * Is. xxvi. 9. Heb. vii. 24, 25. Cant. viii 7. light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. They shall go on from strength to strength, till every one of them appear before God in Zion.t Why should we think it impossible, that true goodness and universal love should ever come to sway and prevail in our souls? Is not this their primitive state and condition; their native and genuine constitution as they came first from the hands of their Maker? Sin and corruption are but usurpers; and though they have long kept the possession, yet from the beginning it was not so. That inordinate self love which one would think were rooted in our very being, and interwoven with the constitution of our nature, is nevertheless of foreign extraction, and had no place at all in the state of integrity. We have still so much reason left as to condemn it. Our understandings are easily convinced, that we ought to be wholly devoted to him from whom we have our being, and to love him infinitely more than ourselves, who is infinitely better than we; and our wills would readily comply with this, if they were not disordered and put out of tune. And is not he who made our souls, able to rectify and mend them again? Shall we not be able, by his assistance, to vanquish and expel those violent intruders, and turn unto flight the armies of the aliens ? ‡ No sooner shall we take up arms in this holy war, but we shall have all the saints on earth, and all the angels in heaven engaged on our party. The holy church throughout the world is daily interceding with God for the success of all such endeavours; and doubtless those heavenly hosts above are nearly concerned in the interests of religion, and infinitely desirous to see the divine life thriving and prevailing in this inferior world; and that the will of God may be done by us on earth, as it is done by themselves in heaven and may we not then encourage our* Prov. iv. 18. + Heb. xi. 54. + Psalm lxxxvi. 7. selves, as the prophet did his servant, when he shewed him the horses and chariots of fire, Fear not, for they that be with us, are more than they that be against us. * We must do what we can, and depend on the divine assistance. Away then with all perplexing fears and desponding thoughts. To undertake vigorously, and rely confidently on the divine assistance, is more than half the conquest. Let us arise and be doing, and the Lord will be with us.† It is true, religion in the souls of men is the immediate work of God; and all our natural endeavours can neither produce it alone, nor merit those supernatural aids by which it must be wrought: the Holy Ghost must come upon us, and the power of the Highest must overshadow us, before that holy thing can be forgotten, and Christe be formed in us. But yet we must not expect that this whole work should be done without any concurring endeavours of our own: we must not lie loitering in the ditch, and wait till omnipotence pulls us from thence. No, no; we must bestir ourselves, and actuate those powers which we have already received: we must put forth ourselves to our uttermost capacities, and then we may hope that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. All the art and industry of man cannot form the smallest herb, or make a stalk of corn to grow in the field: it is the energy of nature, and the influences of heaven, which produce this effect; it is God who causeth the grass to grow, and herb for the service of man: :|| and yet nobody will say, that the labours of the husbandman are useless or unnecessary. So likewise the human soul is immediately created by God; it is . he who both formeth and enliveneth the child: and 1 Cor. xv. 58. § Psalm civ. 14. * 2 Kings, vi. 16, 17. |