See Sect. 1. of this Chap. Rule 18. end; and that it be comprehended in your general prayers, whereby you offer your felf, and all you do to God's Glory. 10. Call not every temporal end a defiling of thy intention; but only, 1. When it contradicts any of the ends of God; or, 2. When it is principally intended in an action of Religion. For fometimes a temporal end is part of our duty: and fuch are all the actions of our calling, whether our employment be religious or civil. We are commanded to provide for our family: but if the Minister of Divine offices fhall take upon him that holy calling for covetous or ambitious ends, or thall not defign the Glory of God principally and especially, he hath polluted his hands and his heart; and the fire of the Altar is quenched, or it fends forth nothing but the fmoak of muthromes or unpleafant gums. And it is a great unworthinefs to prefer the intereft of a creature before the ends of God the Almighty Creator. But because many cafes may happen in which a Man's heart may deceive him, and he may not well know what is in his own fpirit; therefore by these following figns we shall beft make a judgment whether our Intentions be pure, and our Purpofes holy. : Signs of Purity of Intention. 1. It is probable our Hearts are right with God, and our Intentions innocent and pious, if we fet upon actions of Religion or civil life with an affection proportionate to the quality of the work; that we act our temporal affairs with a defire no greater than our neceffity; and that in actions of Religion we be zealous, active and operative, fo far as prudence will permit; but in all cafes, that we value a religious defign before a temporal, when otherwife they are in equal order to their several ends: that is, that whatsoever is neceffary in order to our Souls health, be higher efteemed than what is for bodily; and the neceffities, the indifpenfable neceffities of the fpirit be ferved before the needs of nature, when they ac requir'd intheir feveral feveral circumftances; or plainer yet, when we chuse any temporal inconvenience rather than commit a fin, and when we chufe to do a duty rather than to get gain. But he that does his recreation or his merchandife chearfully, promptly, readily and bufily, and the works of Religion flowly, flatly and without Appetite, and the spirit moves like Pharaoh's Chariots, when the wheels were off, it is a fign that his heart is not right with God, but it cleaves too much to the World. 2. It is likely our hearts are pure and our intentions fpotless when we are not folicitous of the opinion and cenfures of Men; but only that we do our duty, and be accepted of God. For our eyes will certainly be fixed there from whence we expect our reward: and if we defire that God fhould approve us, it is a fign we do his Work, and expect him our Paymaster. 3. He that does as well in private between God and his own Soul as in publick, in Pulpits, in Theatres and Market-places, hath given himself a good Teftimony that his purposes are full of honefty, nobleness and integrity. For what Elkanah faid to the Mother of Samuel, Am not I better to thee than ten Sons? is most certainly verified concerning God, that he who is to be our Judge is better than ten thousand witneffes. But he that would have his vertue published, ftudies not vertue but glory. "He is not juft that will not be juft Seneca, Ep. "without praife: but he is a righteous man that does 113: ἐσ justice, when to do fo is made infamous; and he is cc a wife man who is delighted with an ill name that is "well gotten. And indeed that man hath a ftrange S. Chryf. 1. a "covetoufness or folly, that is not contented with this reward, that he hath pleafed God. And fee what he <c gets by it. He that does good works for praise or S. Greg. Mo "fecular ends, fells an ineftimable jewel for a trifle; tal, 8. c. 29. "and that which would purchase Heaven for him, he ἐσ parts with for the breath of the People, which at ἐς the best is but air, and that not often wholesome. 4. It is well alfo when we are not folicitous or troubled concerning the effect and event of all our Acti ons; but that being firft by Prayer recommended to € 2 him, de Compun cordis. Sect. 2. him, is left at his difpofe: for then in cafe the event be not answerable to our defires, or to the efficacy of the inftrument, we have nothing left to reft in but the honefty of our purposes; which it is the more likely we have fecured, by how much more we are indifferent concerning the fuccefs. S. James converted but eight Perfons, when he preached in Spain; and our bleffed Saviour converted fewer than his own Difciples did: And if thy labours prove unprofperous, if thou beeft much troubled at that, it is certain thou didst not think thy felf fecure of a reward for thine Intention, which thou mightest have done if it had been pure and juft. 5. He loves vertue for God's fake and its own, that loves and honours it wherever it is to be feen; but he that is envious or angry at a vertue that is not his own, at the perfection or excellency of his neighbour, is not covetous of the vertue, but of its reward and reputation, and then his intentions are polluted. It was a great ingenuity in Mofes, that withed all the People might be Prophets; but if he had defigned his own ho nour, he would have prophefied alone. But he that defires only that the work of God and Religion fhall go on, is pleased with it, whoever is the inftrument. 6. He that defpifes the world and all its appendant Vanities is the best Judge, and the moft fecure of his Intentions, because he is the fartheft removed from a Temptation. Every degree of Mortification is a Teftimony of the Purity of our Purposes: and in what degree we defpife fenfual Pleasure, or fecular Honours, or worldly Reputation, in the fame degree we fhall conclude our heart right to Religion and fpiritual Defigns. 7. When we are not folicitous concerning the inftruments and means of our Actions, but use those means which God hath laid before us, with refignation, indifferency and thankfulness, it is a good fign that we are rather intent upon the end of God's Glory than our own conveniency or temporal fatisfaction. He that is indifferent whether he ferve God in Riches or in Poverty, is rather a feeker of God than of himself; and and he that will throw away a good Book because it is not curiously gilded, is more curious to please his eye than to inform his understanding. 8. When a temporal end confifting with a spiritual, and pretended to be fubordinate to it, happens to fail and be defeated, if we can rejoyce in that, fo God's glory may be fecured and the Interests of Religion, it is a great fign our hearts are right, and our ends prudently defigned and ordered. When our intentions are thus balanced, regulated and difcerned, we may confider, 1. That this exercise is of fo univerfal efficacy in the whole course of a holy life, that it is like the Soul to every holy Action, and must be provided for in every undertaking; and is of it felf alone fufficient to make all natural and indifferent Actions to be adopted into the Family of Religion. 2. That there are fome actions which are usually reckoned as parts of our Religion, which yet of themfelves are fo relative and imperfect, that without the purity of intention they degenerate: and unless they be directed and proceed on to thofe purposes which God defigned them to, they return into the family of cómmon, fecular, or finful Actions. Thus Alms are for Charity, Fafting for Temperance, Prayer is for Religion, Humiliation is for Humility, Austerity or Sufferance is in order to the vertue of Patience: and when these Actions fail of their several ends, or are not directed to their own purposes, Alms are mis-pent, Fasting is an impertinent trouble, Prayer is but Lip-labour, Humiliation is but Hypocrifie, Sufferance is but Vexation; for fuch were the Alms of the Pharifee, the Faft of Jezabel, the Prayer of Judah reproved by the Prophet Isaiah, the Humiliation of Ahab, the Martyrdom of Hereticks; in which nothing is given to God but the Body, or the Forms of Religion, but the Sou! and the Power of godlinefs is wholly wanting. 3. We are to confider that no intention can fanctifie an unholy or unlawful Action. Saul the King dif obeyed God's Commandment, and fpared the cattle of Amalek to reserve the beft for Sacrifice : and Saul the Pharifee perfecuted the Church of God with a defign to do God Service: and they that killed the A poftles had also good purposes, but they had unhalS. Bern. 1b. lowed actions. When there is both truth in eleétion de Præceft, and charity in the intention, when we go to God in ways of his own chufing or approving, then our eye is fingle, and our hands are clean, and our hearts are pure. But when a Man does evil that good may come of it, or good to an evil purpose, that Man does like him that rouls himfelf in Thorns that he may fleep eafily; he roafts himself in the Fire that he may quench his thirft with his own Sweat; he turns his face to the Eaft, that he may go to bed with the Sun, Publius Mi- I end this with the faying of a wife Heathen: He is to be called evil, that is good only for his own fake. gard not how full bands you bring to God, but how pure. Many ceafe from fen out of fear alone, not out of innocence or love of vertue, and they (as yet) are not to be called innocent but timorous. mus. 24. SECT. III. The third general Instrument of Holy Living; or the Practice of the Prefence of God. THAT Re "HAT God is prefent in all places, that he fees every Action, hears all Difcourfes, and understands every Thought, is no strange thing to a Chriftian Ear, who hath been taught this doctrine not only by right reafon and the confent of all the wife Men in the World, but alfo by God himself in Holy Scripture. Jer. 23. 23, [Am I a God at hand (Jaith the Lord) and not a God afar off? Can any bide him felf in fecret places that I shall not fee him? (faith the Lord.) Do not I fill heaven and Heb. 4.13. earth? Neither is there any creature that is not manifeft in his fight: but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. For in him we live and move and have our being.] God is wholly in every place, included in no place, not bound with Cords, (except thofe of Love,) not divided into parts nor changeable into feveral fhapes, filling Heaven and 7. 28. Earth |