with an high hand, and against an Honest Conscience; and against Stipulations and Promises which were in our Power to perform; this is that prefumptuous acting, which lays Men naked and deftitute of the Grace of God in this Life, and leaves them exposed to God's everlasting Difpleasure in the next.

YOU have therefore great need, as foon as this Solemnity is over, as to bow your Knees to the Father of Lights, from whom every good and perfect Gift cometh, that he would now hold up your goings in his Paths, that your Footfteps may not flide; fo to be very cir cumfpect and diligent your felves, to make freight Paths for your feet (as the Author to the Hebrews fpeaks) left any Man fhould fail of the Grace of God; left any Man should turn Fornicator or Prophane Perfon, as Efau, Who for one morfel of bread fold his birthright. For ye know, how that afterward, when he would have inherited the Bleffing, he was rejected; for he found no place of Repentance, (no way of changing his Father's mind) though he fought it earnestly with tears, Heb. 12,

CHAP.

I

CHA P. XIII.

Of Perfeverance.

HAVE difcourfed against Relapfing into a finful courfe, not as if it were lufficient for us to forbear going backward, or to ftand at a stay, but because in order to our progress in Virtue, it is the first thing neceffary, to ftand upon your Legs, and to be in a moving and walking posture.

2. THE fecond thing therefore we are to be careful of, is, to remember the Promifes and Refolutions we have made, and to pursue them fo as to tranfmit them into a fettled Practice of all manner of Virtue. This Direction confifts of several Branches.

1. WE are to keep our Vows of Amendment as fresh in our Memories as 'tis poffible. For the Understanding being the original Principle of Action, which governs the Lower Faculties of the Soul, according to those Idea's and Notions that it works by it self, it is impoffible to act with any certain regularity, when a Man doth not Apprehend, or doth not Remember what he is to do. Notions that are

1

quite loft have no more Power and Influence upon us, than if we had never entertained them: And this is one great cause of the Decay of Religion, that Men do not fufficiently charge their Duty upon their Memories, nor revolve their Obligations in their Minds as they should do, but lay afide the thoughts of their former Engagements, like thofe unfruitful Hearers St. James fpeaks of, who though they find by the Precepts of Chrift how Undefiled and Pure their whole Man fhould be; yet inconfiderately drop all care of cleansing themselves from their Pollutions, as those who behold their natural face in a glaß, and then go their ways, ftreightway forgetting what manner of Men they were; that is, what Spots there are in their Faces which are neceflary to be wiped off, Jam. 1. 23, 24. when the confideration of those Resolutions we made at the Lord's Table, doth flide fo foon out of the mind, it is impoffible to conceive how they fhould bring any Fruit unto Perfection, though many were ferious and ftrong for the time, because they are not rooted enough in the Heart to fpring up, like Corn caft into the Bofom of a Kindly Søyl, but are loft prefently for want of deep digeftion, like Seed fcatter'd by the way fide, upon ftony ground, which

that comes.

lies a little,to be picked up by the next Bird. Due Confideration is very powerful to Invigorate the Faculties of the Soul, and to make them productive of a New Life; because it keeps the mind in fuch a conftant motion as maintains the whole Soul at its daily Work. Be fure therefore often to renew the remembrance of thofe Vows, which you made to God at this Covenant-Feast; confider and meditate upon them every day, as you should upon your Latter End; or, that I may allude to Mofes in another cafe, Lay up thofe Vows in your heart, and in your foul, and bind them for a fign upon your hand, that they may be as Phylacteries before your eyes; and think of them when you fit in your Houses, when you walk by the way, when lie down, and when you rife up, Deut. 11. 18, 19. 2. THE next bufinefs is, to transmit them into Practice. For neither are lazy Wishes to any purpose; nor can feeble Refolutions or faint Endeavours ever anfwer the great Ends of Chriftianity. As Virtue is acquired by fingle Acts, fo is it Improved by repeated exercife, and Perfected by the affiduous Difcipline of Perfeverance. 'Tis a miftake to think, that Chrift's Spirit works after fuch a Phyfical Manner, as to Transform a Man

you

per

perfectly in a moment, or to make him compleatly Religious all at once, by a fudden and uncontroulable Infufion of Habitual Holiness. His Operations are fucceffive; alluring, ftirring, and ftrengthning Men to perfect Holiness in the fear of God gradually; and by helping them to Rectifie and Refine Humane Nature more and more, just as evil Custom helps to deprave it. Therefore the Practice of Virtue is abfolutely neceffary, because it cannot be thought how the frequent Lufts of the Flesh can otherwife be mortified, or how a crooked Difpofition can otherwife be Reformed and ftreightned; or how inveterate Habits can otherwise be eradicated to the full.

3. THIS, Thirdly, must be a fetled Practice, a State, a Tenour, a Life of Virtue. To refolve one Day upon a regular Progress, and then to let thofe Refolutions go off with ones first Sleep, is but a parting with ones Sins in a kind of pet, like the parting of Lovers, whom the next opportunity reconciles. Many things may provoke People to fall out with their Lufts for a while; either the penetrating faculty of the Word of God; or a fudden and furprising profpect of Hell; or the fnubbings and lafhes of a reftlefs Mind; or fome outward Calamity

that