FOR it is as right reasoning to fay, God rewards frail and imperfect men, therefore they were call'd to no higher perfection; as to fay, that because God rewards different degrees of goodness, therefore men are. not call'd to one and the fame goodness.

FOR as God could reward none, unless he would reward fuch as had failings; fo their difference in their failings may make them objects of his different mercy and rewards, though the rule from which they failed was common to them all.

IT therefore plainly appears, that the different degrees of glory in another life, are no more a proof that God calls fome perfons to different and lower states of goodness than others, than his pardoning variety of finners is a proof that he allowed of those kinds of fin, and did not require men to avoid them. For it is full as good an argument to fay, God pardons fome finners, therefore he did not require them to avoid fuch fins; as to fay, Ged rewards different degrees of goodness,. therefore he did not call people to higher degrees of goodness.

So that the different degrees of glory in the world to come are no objection against this doctrine, that all Christians are called to one and the fame piety and perfection of heart.

LASTLY, It may be farther objected, that altho' the law of God calls all men to the fame state of perfection; yet if there are different degrees of glory given to different degrees of goodness, this fhews that men may be faved, and happy, without afpiring after all that perfection to which they were called.

IT may be answered, that this is a falfe conclufion for though it may be true, that people will be admitted to happiness, and different degrees of happiness, though they have not attained to all that perfection to which they were called; yet it does not follow, that any people will be faved, who did not endeavour after that perfection. For furely it is a very different cafe, to fall fhort of our perfection after our beft endeavours, and

to

to ftop short of it, by not endeavouring to arrive at it. The one practice may carry men to a high reward in heaven, and the other caft them, with the unprofitable fervant, into outer darkness.

THERE is therefore no foundation for people to content themselves in any lower degrees of goodness, as being fufficient to carry them to heaven, though not to the highest happiness in heaven.

FOR confider, thou hearest there are different degrees of glory, that they are proportioned to different itates of goodness in this life; thou wilt therefore content thyfelf with a lower degree of gcodnefs, being content to be of the lowest order in heaven. wilt have only so much piety as will fave thee.

A

Thou

BUT confider how vainly thou reafonest; for though God giveth different rewards, it is not in the power of man to take them of himself. It is not for any one to fay, I will practife fo much goodness, and fo take fuch a reward. God feeth different abilities and frailties in men, which may move his goodness to be merciful to their different improvements in virtue : I grant thee, that there may be a lower state of piety, which in fome perfons may be accepted by God.

BUT confider, that tho' there is such a state of piety that may be accepted; yet, that it cannot be chofen, it

ceafes to be that ftate as foon as thou chufeft it.

GOD may be merciful to a low estate of piety, by reafon of fome pitiable circumstances that may attend it; but as foon as thou chusest such an eftate of piety, it loses those pitiable circumstances, and, instead of a lower ftate of piety, is changed into a high state of impiety.

So that tho' there are meaner improvements in virtue, which may make some perfons accepted by God, yet this is no ground for content or fatisfaction in fuch a itate; because it ceases to be fuch a ftate, and is quite another thing, for being chofen and fatisfied with.

IT appears therefore from these confiderations, that notwithstanding God may accept of different degrees

of

of goodness, and reward them with different degrees of glory in another life; yet that all Chriftians are called to one and the fame perfection, and equally obliged to labour after it.

THUS much may fuffice to give the reader a ge neral notion of perfection, and the neceffity of endeavouring after it.

WHAT it is, and what holy tempers it requires, will, I hope, be found fufficiently explained in the following chapters.

CHAP. I.

The nature and defign of Christianity; that its fole end is to deliver us from the mifery and diforder of this prefent ftate, and raife us to a blissful enjoyment of the divine Na

ture.

THE wifdom of mankind has for feveral ages of

the world, been enquiring into the nature of man, and the nature of the world in which he is placed.

THE wants and miseries of human nature, and the vanity of wordly enjoyments, has made it difficult for the wifeft men to tell what human happiness was, or wherein it confifted.

IT has pleased the infinite goodness of God, to fatisfy all our wants and enquiries by a revelation made to the world by his Son Jefus Christ.

THIS revelation has laid open the great fecrets of Povidence from the creation of the world, explained the prefent state of things, and given man all the information that is neceffary to quiet his anxieties, con

tent

tent him with his condition, and lead him fafely to everlasting rest and happiness.

It is now only neceffary, that the poor wisdom of man do not exalt itself against God, that we fuffer our eyes to be opened by him that made them, and our lives to be conducted by him, in whom we live, move, and have our being.

FOR light is now come into the world, if men are but willing to come out of darkness.

As happiness is the fole end of all our labours, fo this divine revelation aims at nothing else.

IT gives us right and fatisfactory notions of ourfelves, of our true good and real evil; it fhews us the true state of our condition, both our vanity and excellence, our greatness and meannefs, our felicity and mifery.

BEFORE this, man was a mere riddle to himself, and his condition full of darkness and perplexity: A reftless inhabitant of a miferable difordered world, walking in a vain shadow, and disquieting himself in

vain.

BUT this light has difperfed all the anxiety of his vain conjectures; it has brought us acquainted with God, and by adding heaven to earth, and eternity to time, has opened fuch a glorious view of things, as makes man, even in his prefent condition, full of a peace of God which passes all understanding.

THIS revelation acquaints us, that we have a spirit within us that was created after the divine image, that this fpirit is now in a fallen corrupt condition, that the body in which it is placed is its grave or fepulchre, where it is enflaved to flefhly thoughts, blinded with falfe notions of good and evil, and dead to all taste and relish of its true happiness.

Ir teaches us, that the world in which we live, is alfo in a difordered irregular ftate, and curfed for the fake of man; that it is no longer the paradife that God made it, but the remains of a drowned world,

full

full of marks of God's difpleasure, and the fin of its inhabitants.

THAT it is a mere wilderness, a state of darkness, a vale of mifery, where vice and madness, dreams and fhadows, variously please, agitate, and torment the short, miserable lives of men.

DEVILS alfo, and evil fpirits, have here their refidence, promoting the works of darkness, and wandering up and down feeking whom they may devour.

So that the condition of man, in his natural ftate, feems to be, as if a perfon fick of variety of diseases, knowing neither his diftempers nor his cure, fhould be enclosed in fome place, where he could hear, or fee, or feel, or taite of nothing, but what tended to inflame his disorders.

THE excellency therefore of the Christian religion appears in this, that it puts an end to this ftate of things, blots out all the ideas of worldly wisdom, brings the world itself to afhes, and creates all a-new. It calls man from an animal life and earthly focieties, to be born again of the Holy Ghoft, and be made a member of the kingdom of God.

IT crushes into nothing the concerns of this life, condemns it as a state of vanity and darkness, and leads man to a happiness with God in the realms of light.

IT propofes the purification of our fouls, the enlivening us with the divine Spirit; it fets before us new goods and evils, and forms us to a glorious participation of the divine Nature.

THIS is the one fole end of Chriftianity, to lead us from all thoughts of reft and repofe here, to feparate us from the world and worldly tempers, to deliver us from the folly of our paffions, the flavery of our own natures, the power of evil fpirits, and unite us to God, the true fountain of all real good. This is the mighty change which Chriftianity aims at, to put us into a new ftate, reform our whole natures, purify

our