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endeavours can neither produce it alone, nor merit those supernatural aids by which it must be wrought: the Hoiy host must come upon us, and the power of the Highest must overshadow us, before that holy thing can be forgotten, and Christ 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 pull 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 utmost 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 causes 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 cre ated by God; it is he who both formeth and enliveneth the child: and yet he hath appointed the marriage-bed as the ordinary means for the propagation of mankind. Though there must intervene a stroke of omnipotence to effect this mighty change in our souls, yet ought we to do what we can to fit and prepare ourselves. For we must break up our fallow ground, and root out the weeds, and pull up the thorns, that so we may be more ready to receive the seeds of grace, and the dew of heaven. It is true, God hath been found of some who sought him not; he hath cast himself in their way, who were quite out of his; he hath laid hold upon them, and stopped their course of a sudden: for so was St. Paul converted in his journey to Damascus. But certainly this is not God's ordinary method of dealing with men. Though he hath not tied himself to means, yet he hath tied us to the use of them; and we have never more reason to expect the divine assistance, than when we are doing our utmost endeavours. It shall therefore be my next work, to show what course we ought to take for

attaining that blessed temper I have hitherto described. But here, if, in delivering my own thoughts, I shall chance to differ from what is or may be said by others in this matter, I would not be thought to contradict and oppose them, more than physicians do, when they prescribe several remedies for the same disease, which perhaps are all useful and good. Every one may propose the method he judges most proper and convenient; but he doth not thereby pretend that the cure can never be effected, unless that be exactly observed. I doubt it hath occasioned much unnecessary disquietude to some holy persons, that they have not found such a regular and orderly transaction in their souls, as they have seen described in books: that they have not passed through all those steps and stages of conversion, which some (who perhaps have felt them in themselves) have too peremptorily prescribed unto others. God hath several ways of dealing with the souls of men; and it sufficeth if the work be accomplished, whatever the methods have been.

Again, though, in proposing directions, I must follow that order which the nature of things shall lead to; yet I do not mean that the same method should be so punctually observed in the practice, as if the latter rules were never to be heeded, till some considerable time have been spent in practising the former. The directions I intend are mutually conducive one to another; and are all to be performed as occasion shall serve, and we find ourselves enabled to perform them.

We must shun all manner of sin.

But now, that I may detain you no longer, if we desire to have our souls moulded to this holy frame, to become partakers of the divine nature, and have Christ formed in our hearts, we must seriously resolve, and carefully endeavour to avoid and abandon all vicious and sinful practices. There can be no treaty of peace, till once we lay down these weapons of rebellion wherewith we fight against heaven: nor can we expect to have our distempers cured, if we be daily feeding on poison. Every

wilful sin gives a mortal wound to the soul, and puts it at a greater distance from God and goodness: and we can never hope to have our hearts purified from corrupt affections, unless we cleanse our hands from vicious actions. Now, in this case, we cannot excuse ourselves by the pretence of impossibility; for sure our outward man is some way in our power; we have some command of our feet, and hands, and tongue, nay, and of our thoughts and fancies too; at least so far as to divert them from impure and sinful objects, and to turn our mind another way: and we should find this power and authority much strengthened and advanced, if we were careful to manage and exercise it. In the mean while, I acknowledge our corruptions are so strong, and our temptations so many, that it will require a great deal of stedfastness and resolution, of watchfulness and care, to preserve ourselves, even in this degree of innocence and purity.

We must know what things are sinful.

And, first, let us inform ourselves well, what those sins are from which we ought to abstain.. And here we must not take our measures from the maxims of the world, or the practices of those whom in charity we account good men. Most people have very light apprchensions of these things, and are not sensible of any fault, unless it be gross and flagitious; and scarce reckon any so great as that which they call preciseness: and those who are more serious, do many times allow themselves too great latitude and freedom. Alas! how much pride and vanity, and passion and humour; how much weakness, folly, and sin, doth every day show itself in their converse and behaviour. It may be they are humbled for it, and striving against it, and are daily gaining some ground; but then the progress is so small, and their failings so many, that we have need to choose an exacter pattern. Every one of us must answer for himself, and the practices of others will never warrant and secure us. It is the highest folly to regulate our actions by any other standard than that by which they must be judged.

If ever we would cleanse our way, it must be by taking heed thereunto according to the word of God. And that word which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, will certainly discover many things to be sinful and heinous, which pass for very innocent in the eyes of the world: let us therefore imitate the Psalmist, who saith, Concerning the works of men, by the words of thy lips, I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer. Let us acquaint ourselves with the strict and holy laws of our religion; let us consider the discourses of our blessed Saviour, (especially that divine sermon on the mount,) and the writings of his holy apostles, where an ingenious and unbiassed mind may clearly discern those limits and bounds by which our actions ought to be confined. And then let us never look upon any sin as light and inconsiderable; but be fully persuaded that the smallest is infinitely heinous in the sight of God, and prejudicial to the souls of men; and that, if we had a right sense of things, we should be as deeply affected with the least irregularities, as now we are with the highest crimes. We must resist the temptations of sin, by considering the evils they will draw on us.

But now, amongst those things which we discover to be sinful, there will be some, unto which, through the disposition of our nature, or long custom, or the endearments of pleasure, we are so much wedded, that it will be like cutting off the right hand, or pulling out the right eye, to abandon them. But must we therefore sit down and wait till all difficulties are over, and every temptation be gone? This were to imitate the fool in the poet, who stood the whole day at the river side, till all the waters should run by. We must not indulge our inclinations, as we do little children, till they grow weary of the thing they are unwilling to let go; we must not continue

our sinful practices, in hopes that the divine grace will one day overpower our spirits, and make us hate them for their own deformity.

Let us suppose the worst, that we are utterly destitute of any supernatural principle, and want that taste by which we should discern and abhor perverse things: yet sure we are capable of some considerations which may be of force to persuade us to this reformation of our lives. If the inward deformity and heinous nature of sin cannot affect us, at least we may be frighted by those dreadful consequences that attend it: that same selfish principle which pusheth us forward unto the pursuit of sinful pleasures, will make us loth to buy them at the rate of everlasting misery. Thus we may encounter self-love with its own weapons, and employ one natural inclination for repressing the exorbitances of another. Let us therefore accustom ourselves to consider seriously, what a fearful thing it must needs be to irritate and offend that infinite Being, on whom we hang and depend every moment; who needs but to withdraw his mercies to make us miserable, or his assistance to make us nothing. Let us frequently remember the shortness and uncertainty of our lives, and how that, after we have taken a few turns more in the world, and conversed a little longer amongst men, we must all go down into the dark and silent grave, and carry nothing along with us but anguish and regret for all our sinful enjoyments; and then think what horror must needs seize the guilty soul, to find itself naked and all alone before the severe and impartial judge of the world, to render an exact account, not only of its more important and considerable transactions, but of every word that the tongue hath uttered, and the swiftest and most secret thought that ever passed through the mind. Let us sometimes represent unto ourselves the terrors of that dreadful day, when the foundations of the earth shall be shaken, and the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the present frame of nature be dissolved, and our eyes shall see the blessed Jesus (who came once into the world in all humility to

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