1 Theff. v. 36. Eph. v. 11. preferved. The like benefits doth religion, which is the SERM. light of our foul, yield to it. Pious men are children of III. the light; pious works are works of light shining before Luke xvi.8. men. God's word (or true religion) is a lamp unto our Eph. v. 8. feet, and a light unto our path; enabling us to perceive 5. things, and judge rightly of them; teaching us to walk John xii. ftraightly and furely, without erring or ftumbling; quali- Matt. v. 16. fying us to embrace what is ufeful, and to avoid hurtful Pfal. cxix. things; preserving our spiritual life, and difpofing us to 105. act well with a vigorous alacrity: without it a man is ftark blind, and utterly benighted, gropeth in doubt, wan-If. lix. 10. dereth in miftake, trippeth upon all occafions, and often Job v. 14. falleth into mischief. The path of the juft, faith the Wife xxviii. 29. Man, is as the shining light. The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they ftumble. Righteouf- Prov. xiii. nefs keepeth him that is upright in the way; but wicked- 6. xi. 3. 5nefs overthroweth the finner. Again: it is a fair ornament of a man, and a grand convenience both to himself, and to others with whom he converseth or dealeth, to act regularly, uniformly, and confiftently; freeing a man's felf from diftraction and irrefolution in his mind, from change and confufion in his proceedings; fecuring others from delufion and disappointment in their tranfactions with him. a Even a bad rule conftantly obferved is therefore better than none: order and perfeverance in any way seemeth more convenient than roving and toffing about in uncertainties. But, fecluding a regard to the precepts of religion, there can hardly be any fure or fettled rule, which firmly can engage a man to, or effectually restrain a man from any thing. There is scarce in nature any thing fo wild, fo untractable, fo unintelligible, as a man who hath no bridle of confcience to guide or check him. A profane man is like a ship, without anchor to stay him, or rudder to steer him, or compafs to guide him; fo that he is toffed with any wind, and driven with any wave, none knoweth whither; ■ Via eunti aliquid extremum eft; error immenfus eft. Sen. Ep. 16. Deut. Prov. iv. 18, 19. SERM. whither bodily temper doth fway him, or paffion doth III. hurry him, or intereft doth pull him, or example leadeth him, or company inveigleth and haleth him, or humour transporteth him; whither any fuch variable and unaccountable caufes determine him, or divers of them together distract him: whence he fo rambleth and hovereth, that he can feldom himself tell what in any case he should do, nor can another guess it; fo that you cannot at any time know where to find him, or how to deal with him : you cannot with reafon ever rely upon him, fo unftable he is in all his ways. He is in effect a mere child, all humour and giddinefs, fomewhat worse than a beast, which, following the inftinct of its nature, is conftant and regular, and thence tractable; or at leaft fo untractable, that no man will be deceived in meddling with him. Nothing therefore can be more unmanly than fuch a perfon, nothing can be more unpleasant than to have to do with him b. But a pious man, being steadily governed by conscience, and a regard to certain principles, doth both understand himself and is intelligible to others: he presently defcrieth what in any cafe he is to do, and can render an account of his acting you may know him clearly, and affuredly tell what he will do, and may therefore fully confide in him o. What therefore law and government are to the public, things neceffary to preferve the world in order, peace, and fafety, (that men may know what to do, and diftinguish what is their own,) that is piety to each man's private state, and to ordinary converfation: it freeth a man's own life from disorder and distraction; it prompteth men how to behave themfelves toward one another with fecurity and confidence. This it doth by confining our practice within fettled bounds but this advantage appeareth greater, confider : b Nihil eft tam occupatum, tam multiforme, tot ac tam variis affectibus concifum atque laceratum, quam mala mens. Quint. xii. 1. • Οἱ ἐπιεικεῖς ἑαυτοῖς ὁμονοῦσι καὶ ἀλλήλοις, ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ὄντες, ὡς εἰπεῖν· τῶν τοιοῦτων μένει γὰρ τὰ βελήματα, καὶ οὐ μεταῤῥεῖ, ὥσπερ εὔριπος. Arif. Eth, ix. 6. III. 12, 13. ing that the rules which it prefcribeth are the beft that SERM, can be. Such they must needs be, as proceeding from infallible wisdom and immenfe goodness; being indeed no other than laws, which the all-wife and most gracious Lord and Maker of the world, out of tender kindness to his fubjects and creatures, with especial regard to our welfare, hath been pleased to enact and declare. What of old he faid to the Ifraelites concerning their laws, may with greater advantage be applied to those, which should regulate our lives: And now, Ifrael, what doth the Lord Deut. x. thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to ferve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy foul; to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his ftatutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? (For thy good; that was the design of their being commanded; thereto the obfervance of them did tend.) And that commendation, which by the Levites in Nehemiah is given to that, doth more clearly and fully agree to the Chriftian (general and perfect) institution: Thou cameft down from Neh. ix. 18. mount Sinai, and Spakeft with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good ftatutes and commandments. And, The law, faith the Apostle Paul, is holy; Rom. vii. the commandment is holy, juft, and good: as fuch it is 12. recommended to us by its Author, fo we Christians are by many great arguments affured that it is, and that it is fuch even our natural reafon dictateth; fo (as to the chief inftances thereof) the most wife and fober men always have acknowledged, fo the general confent doth avow, and fo even common experience doth atteft. For, heartily to love and reverence the Maker of all things, who by every thing apparent before us demonftrateth himself incompréhenfibly powerful, wife, and good, to be kind and charitable to our neighhours, to be just and faithful in our dealings, to be fober and modest in our minds, to be meek and gentle in our demeanours, to be staunch and temperate in our enjoyments, and the like principal rules of duty, are fuch, that the common reafon of men and continual experience do approve them as hugely conducible to the : SERM. public good of men, and to each man's private welfare. III. So notoriously beneficial they appear, that for the justification of them we might appeal even to the judgment and confcience of those perfons, who are moft concerned to derogate from them. For hardly can any man be fo fenfelefs, or fo lewd, as seriously to disapprove or condemn them, as inwardly to blame or flight those who truly act according to them. The will of men fometimes may be fo depraved, that diffolute perfons wantonly and heedlessly may scoff at and feem to difparage goodness; that good men by very bad men for doing well may be envied and hated (their being fo treated is commonly an argument of the goodness of their persons and of their ways:) but the understanding of men can hardly be fo corrupted, that piety, charity, justice, temperance, meekness, can in good earnest confiderately by any man be disallowed, or that perfons apparently practifing them can be despised; but rather, in spite of all contrary prejudice and disaffections, fuch things and such persons cannot but in judg ment and heart be efteemed by all men. The luftre of them by a natural and neceffary efficacy (like that of heaven's glorious light) dazzleth the fight and charmeth the spirits of all men living; the beauty of them irresistibly conquereth and commandeth in the apprehenfions of men: the more they are observed, the more useful and needful they appear for the good of men; all the fruits which grow from the obfervance of them being to all men's tafte very pleasant, to all men's experience very wholefome. Indeed, all the good, whereby common life is adorned, is fweetened, is rendered pleasant and defirable, doth fpring thence; all the mifchiefs which infeft particular men, and which disturb the world, palpably do arife from the tranfgreffion or neglect thereof. If we look on a person sticking to those rules, we shall perceive him to have a cheerful mind and composed paffions, to be at peace within, and fatisfied with himself; to live in comely order, in good repute, in fair correspondence, and firm concord with his neighbours. If we mark what preferveth the body found and lufty, what keepeth III. the mind vigorous and brifk, what faveth and im- SERM. proveth the estate, what upholdeth the good name, what guardeth and graceth a man's whole life; it is nothing else but proceeding in our demeanour and dealings according to the honest and wife rules of piety. If we view a place where these commonly in good measure are observed, we fhall difcern, that peace and profperity do flourish there; that all things proceed on fweetly and fairly; that men generally drive on converfation and commerce together contentedly, delightfully, advantageously, yielding friendly advice and aid mutually, ftriving to render one another happy; that few clamours or complaints are heard there, few contentions or ftirs do appear, few disasters or tragedies do occur; that fuch a place hath indeed much of the face, much of the substance of Paradife. But if you mind a person who neglecteth them, you will find his mind galled with fore remorse, racked with anxious fears and doubts, agitated with ftorms of paffion and luft, living in diforder and difgrace, jarring with others, and no less diffatisfied with himself. If you observe what doth impair the health, doth weaken and fret the mind, doth wafte the eftate, doth blemish the reputation, doth expofe the whole life to danger and trouble; what is it but thwarting these good rules? If you confider a place where thefe are much neglected, it will appear like a wilderness of savage beasts, or a fty of foul fwine, or a hell of cursed fiends; full of roaring and tearing, of factions and feuds, of distractions and confufions, of pitiful objects, of doleful moans, of tragical events. Men are there wallowing in filth, wildly revelling, bickering and fquabbling, defaming, circumventing, disturbing and vexing one another; as if they affected nothing more than to render one another as miferable as they can. It is from luft and luxury, from ambition and avarice, from envy and spite, and the like dispositions, which religion chiefly doth interdict, that all fuch horrid mischiefs do fpring. In fine, the precepts of religion are no other, than fuch |