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II.

promised by our Lord, that, If we feek first the kingdom of SERM. God, all things fhall be added to us. Hence it is inferred, as confequential to the nature of the evangelical difpenfa- Matth. vi. tion, that we cannot want any good thing; He, faith St. Paul, that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up Rom. viii. for us all, how fhall he not with him alfo freely give us all 32. things? In fine, hence it is proposed as notorious, that nothing is permitted to fall out otherwise than as conduceth to our good. We know, faith St. Paul, that all Rom. viii. things work together for good unto thofe that love God: 1Cor. x. 13. nor will God, in any cafe, fuffer us to be tempted, by any want or preffure, beyond what we are able to bear. Thus is piety evidently profitable, as having the promises of this life, or exhibiting all temporal bleffings defirable to the practisers thereof.

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1

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But infinitely more profitable it is, as having the promifes of the future life, or as procuring a title to those incomparably more excellent bleffings of the other world; those indefectible treasures, that incorruptible, undefiled, Luke xii. and never-fading inheritance, referved in heaven for us; Pet. i. 4. that exceeding weight of glory; thofe ineffable joys of 2 Cor. iv. paradife, that lightfome countenance and beatifying pre-Pet. i. 8. fence of God; that unconceivably and unexpreffibly joy- iv. 13. ful, glorious, perfect, and endless blifs; briefly, all that is comprised and intimated in those words of the Apostle, Eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into 1 Cor. ii. 9. the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Infinitely profitable surely must that be, which procureth those things for us: and in these respects great reason had St. Paul to say, that Godliness is profitable for all things.

But farther to evidence and recommend this point, I might propound certain peculiar advantages arifing from piety, which have a very general influence upon our lives, and do afford unto them exceeding benefit: but this I muft, in regard to the time and your patience, at present forbear.

SERMON III.

THE PROFITABLENESS OF GODLINESS.

III.

I TIM. iv. 8.

-But Godliness is profitable for all things.

SERM. IN difcourfing formerly upon these words, I did propound divers general confiderations, ferving to confirm and recommend this affertion of St. Paul. I fhall now infift upon some others more particular, which yet seem much conducible to the fame purpose, declaring the vast utility of religion or piety.

I. We may confider, that religion doth prescribe the truest and best rules of action; thence enlightening our mind, and rectifying our practice in all matters, and upon all occafions, fo that whatever is performed according to it, is done well and wifely, with a comely grace in regard to others, with a cheerful fatisfaction in our own mind, with the best affurance, that things are here capable of, to find happy fuccefs and beneficial fruit.

Of all things in the world there is nothing more generally profitable than light: by it we converse with the world, and have all things fet before us; by it we truly and easily discern things in their right magnitude, shape, and colour; by it we guide our steps fafely in profecution of what is good, and fhunning what is noxious; by it our fpirits are comfortably warmed and cheered, our life confequently, our health, our vigour, and activity are

1 Theff. v.

John xii.

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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 ftraightly and furely, without erring or stumbling; quali- Matt. v. 16. Eph. v. 11. fying us to embrace what is useful, and to avoid hurtful Pfal. cxix. things; preferving our fpiritual life, and difpofing us to 105. act well with a vigorous alacrity: without it a man is stark blind, and utterly benighted, gropeth in doubt, wan- If. lix. 10. dereth in mistake, 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 119. darkness, they know not at what they ftumble. Righteouf- Prov. xiii. ness keepeth him that is upright in the way; but wicked- 6. xi. 3. 5. nefs 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 difappointment in their transactions with him. a Even a bad rule conftantly obferved is therefore better than none: order and perfeverance in any way feemeth 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 compass 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 sway 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 such variable and unaccountable caufes determine him, or divers of them together distract him: whence he so rambleth and hovereth, that he can feldom himself tell what in any case he should do, nor can another guess it; so 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, so unstable he is in all his ways. He is in effect a mere child, alł humour and giddiness, somewhat worse than a beast, which, following the instinct of its nature, is constant and regular, and thence tractable; or at least 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 descrieth 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 c.

What therefore law and government are to the public, things neceffary to preserve the world in order, peace, and safety, (that men may know what to do, and distinguish 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 diforder and distraction; it prompteth men how to behave themselves toward one another with fecurity and confidence.

This it doth by confining our practice within settled bounds but this advantage appeareth greater, confider

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 τοιοῦτον μένει γὰρ τὰ βελήματα, καὶ οὐ μεταῤῥεῖ, ὥσπερ εὔριπος. Arif. Eth. ix. 6.

ing that the rules which it prefcribeth are the best 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 thofe, 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 12, 13. 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 defign of their being commanded; thereto the observance 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 Christian (general and perfect) inftitution: Thou cameft down from Neh. ix. 18. mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gaveft them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And, The law, faith the Apostle Paul, is holy; Rom. vii. the commandment is holy, juft, and good: as fuch it is 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 reason dictateth; so (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 attest. For, heartily to love and reverence the Maker of all things, who by every thing apparent before us demonstrateth himself incomprehenfibly powerful, wife, and good, to be kind and charitable to our neighhours, to be just and faithful in our dealings, to be fober and modeft in our minds, to be meek and gentle in our demeanours, to be ftaunch and temperate in our enjoyments, and the like principal rules of duty, are fuch, that the common reason of men and continual experience do approve them as hugely conducible to the

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