which their salvation is not concerned, nor the expectation of a future life hazarded, would not tell which way in the world to spend their time: nor can they possibly imagine wherein their light should shine before men, but in finding out abuses and heresies; which, say they, have crept into the church, which defile the holy sanctuary, and which we ought loudly to exclaim against, in order to extirpate both them and the introducers of them. And now they fancy themselves to march out with the army of the God of Hosts, against the army of the unregenerate Philistines; and if any of them fall in the encounter, he shall be compared presently to an Apostle or a martyr, with some grace or other shining so perspicuously in him, as of the two shall be sure to carry the comparison on his side. Patience under any imposition laid on them, and submission to the will of another, are too tame and childish virtues for such warlike and adventurous spirits to be guilty of. These are the second sort of men who are falsely persuaded of their being those shining lights to the world which our Saviour speaks of.

3. The third and last sort of those men we mentioned, were such as are perfectly engaged to their bodies, to their natural tempers and constitutions, for their religion; and therefore it may be truly observed that if in their whole life there happen any thing so extraordinarily as to make a change in their natural temper, it hath the same effect in their religion too. Their devotion comes on them by fits; and if the blood be dull and heavy, if the body be full of humors and vapors, then they fancy to themselves terrible and frightful thoughts of the Deity: it seems utterly impossible to them that such poor, despicable, and contemptible things as themselves, should ever perform any acceptable service to God; that when they have done all they can, they will still be such unprofitable servants, as must expect nothing but a dreadful appearance before the tribunal of God, nothing but an unsupportable sentence from that infinite Majesty, whom even in their performances they have offended: and such like thoughts as these are the entertainment of their minds, so long as the body continues in this posture. But let moderate exercise, a good diet, and a clear air refine their spirits, purify their blood, and remove those gross vapors that oppressed them before, and then presently they condemn their

former sentiments; God appears a being that does not at all delight in the death of his creatures, that considers their human infirmities, and the many snares and temptations to which, by reason of their bodies, they are liable and obnoxious: all these things considered, they are now in very good hopes that it shall go well with them hereafter. And this is the method which they drive on through the whole course of their lives.

Now these men, of any that we have yet named, are generally the most pertinacious and stubborn maintainers of whatsoever they have proposed to themselves, and resolved to believe; for the body not very frequently undergoing such a considerable alteration, and so long continuing it, as is able to beget and settle contrary sentiments in their minds to those which they have at first embraced, they stick still to the most prevailing side; and body, having once possession, is very difficultly and hardly dispossessed by reason. There is that in these men's tempers too which mightily obliges them to appear religious in the eye of the world, and to seem to be great lights: for if it happen that in their melancholy fits their neighbor at any time does but smile, or is exalted to any moderate degree of mirth, they fancy he is presently running headlong to ruin and destruction; that they are bound to appear more mortified before him; and by that means, if possible, to save him from ruin, who, it may be, is farther from it than themselves, and who, from a sense of performing his duty towards God sincerely and faithfully, had the greatest cause to be merry that could possibly be afforded him. Now I dare appeal to all the world (that part only excepted who are here mentioned) whether or no these men's behavior does not tend far more to the disadvantage and ruin of our religion, than to the building it up more largely and gloriously.

Certainly, if it be not extirpated by the falling away of those who have already embraced it on the consideration of what these melancholy men suggest, as necessary to be found in its professors, it will never be extended by the addition of new proselytes. Who is there of a free and lively spirit, maintained without any violation of that religion to which he has been devoted hitherto, that will forsake his former faith for such an one as shall render him dull and lumpish, sour and morose, and

even a burden to himself? Who is there of a cheerful temper, which was never forbidden him by that being whom he has hitherto adored, that will translate his religious worship, homage, and obedience, to another, who will impose it on him as necessary to salvation to lead a life insensible to all those innocent pleasures and passions which he finds necessary to the good both of his body and his mind? And yet such representations as these, do this sort of men, both in their actions and professions, make of our religion; whilst they will have it that it obliges us to what it never intended, nay, to that of which it commands the contrary. Thus they worship God with little more tolerable notions and apprehensions of him than those miserable creatures entertain, to whom the devil is said to appear, and to exact the wounding and crucifying of their bodies, as a piece of worship due to him; and they really inflict more insufferable torments on their minds, than the others do on their bodies: they worship God, not, as we ought to do, with due fear and reverence, with a sense of his infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, but with horror and terror, with affrightment, confusion, and amazedness of spirit.

Such are those three sorts of men who are falsely persuaded of their being great instruments of God's glory, and lights to the world; who think they deserve all things of all mankind; who exalt their own merits so high as to make themselves almost so many saviours of the world in their own conceits; when all the religion they boast of is but the effect of a vitiated and depraved mind, or of a distempered and disor derly body.

III. We come now to consider another sort of men very different from these, who are not certainly irreprehensible, though doubtless far more excusable than any we have already named. And those are persons who might, but will not, be such lights to the world as they ought; who live very virtuously, and do a great many good actions; but to avoid the vice of vain-glory, run into the other extreme, denying them their due extent, and so smothering them up, as if they were conscious to themselves of some guilt that redounded to them by the performance of each. True it is, no man ought to be vainly proud from the consideration of the greatest act of self-denial,

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VOL. IV.

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or of any other Christian virtue, not though we could suppose him to have a mind and ability sufficient to redress the calamities and hardships of the greater part of mankind: and the reason is, because he is but barely a dispenser of what he has received, and of which he cannot promise himself any durable possession.

Yet there is no doubt at all, but a man may take abundance of pleasure, and the most real content and satisfaction, in every good act he performs; for here he is conscious to himself of improving the talent well for which he was a steward, and knows that he has a master who will reward him.

Neither ought he to be fearful of running into the number of those who do their alms before men, who sound a trumpet before them, and therefore receive their reward in this life, although his alms be taken notice of by men; although he purchase a good estimation by the doing of them; so long as all such things are perfectly beyond, are ever above and beside the scope and intent which he aimed at in the performance. For there is no question at all but that our good acts and virtues should be resplendent and manifest to the eyes of the world, and that our Saviour himself does command the same, in the words of my text, where he says, 'let your light shine before men.' The necessity of which will appear from the clearing of that which we propounded to be the fourth argument of this discourse; which was,

IV. What would be the effects of so exemplary a life; to wit, the conversion of our brethren, and the glory of God, with great benefit and advantage accruing to ourselves.

First, this is necessary for the conversion of our brethren ; for in all the good acts which we perform in the eyes of the world, we do instruct and tacitly reprove those who have neglected to do the same on the same occasions, or else have done the contrary. And as there is no virtue by an acquaintance with which another may not be improved, and by seeing our exercise of it, let us instance some few to the exercise of which our state and condition of life often engage us: 1. first then, I say; has Providence so dealt with us as to convert our fortune and estate from better to worse? Are we fallen from a full and plentiful enjoyment of the good things of this life, so as to feel

the want of some of them? Are we forced now to procure that by the labor of our hands and the sweat of our brows, which before flowed almost insensibly on us? Have we changed our soft repose and delicacies for the enduring of hardships and necessities; our delicious fare for that which is harsh and unsavory? And do we at such a time as this support our spirits with Christian courage and magnanimity; with a consideration of the vanity, emptiness, and uncertainty of all earthly enjoyments; with the notion that we are never the better or worse men, nor more or less acceptable in the sight of God, for being possessed of or destitute of this world's goods? And do we make this appear by the cheerfulness of our spirits, by our not desponding or murmuring under our present state, and by our open profession of perfect submission to the will of God, and to that method wherein his wisdom sees best and most convenient to deal with us?

By these means, I say, we do add abundance of strength and courage to the minds of other Christians, who are fallen into the same condition with ourselves: and as they may have thought it impossible, before they saw our patience and toleration, to acquiesce in such a change, and for that reason may never have attempted it, so now may they be taught by our example to exercise the same virtue and grace of contentedness; by which means they become less burdensome to themselves, freed from their former vexations and inquietudes, and also more acceptable in their carriage and behavior towards God.

2. Secondly; are we blest with a very large portion of the good things of this life? And do we approve ourselves very compassionate and sensible to the wants of our fellow creatures, by supplying them from the abundance of our store? Are we likewise ourselves affable and obliging to all persons, though inferior to us in rank and quality, making the wants of our brethren to be the measure of our charity; and by how much the more they are in distress, and so generally more contemptible in the eyes of the world, are we by so much the more courteous and kind, as to persons who are in a condition of receiving the greatest benefit and comfort from such a carriage? I say, it will often happen that by these means we shall com