I SHALL now leave this Subject to the Reader's own Meditation, with this one farther Obfervation.

WE fee the Height of our calling, that we are called to follow the Example of our Lord and Mafter, and to go through this World with his Spirit and Temper. Now nothing is fo likely a Means to fill us with his Spirit and Temper, as to be frequent in reading the Gospels, which contain the Hiftory of his Life and Conversation in the World. We are apt to think, that we have fufficiently read a Book, when we have fo read it, as to know what it contains, this reading may be fufficient as to many Books, but as to the Gospels, we are not to think that we have ever read them enough, because we have often read and heard what they contain. But we must read them, as we do our Prayers, not to know what they contain, but to fill our Hearts with the Spirit of them. There is as much Difference betwixt reading, and reading, as there is betwixt praying, and praying. And as no one prays well, but he that is daily and conftant in Prayer, fo no one can read the Scriptures to fufficient Advantage, but he that is daily and conftant in the reading of them. By thus converfing with our Bleffed Lord, looking into his Actions and manner of Life, hearK k

ing

ing his Divine Sayings his Heavenly Inftructions, his Accounts of the Terrors of the Damn'd, his Defcriptions of the Glory of the Righteous, we fhould find our Hearts form'd and difpos'd to Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness. Happy they, who faw the Son of God upon Earth converting Sinners, and calling fallen Spirits to return to God! And next happy are we, who have his Difcourfes, Doctrines, A&ions, and Miracles which then converted Jews and Heathens into Saints and Martyrs, ftill preferv'd to fill us with the fame Heavenly Light, and lead us to the fame State of Glory.

魚魚魚魚魚魚魚魚魚

CHA P. XIV.

An Exhortation to Chriftian Per

fection.

HOEVER hath read the foregoing Chapters with Attention, is, I hope, fufficiently inftructed in the Knowledge of Chriftian Perfection. He hath feen that it requireth us to devote our felves wholly unto God, to make the Ends and Designs of Religion, the Ends and Designs of all our Actions. That it calleth us to be born again of God, to live by the Light of his Holy Spirit, to renounce the World and all worldly Tempers, to practice a conftant, universal Self-denial, to make daily War with the Corruption and Disorder of our Nature, to prepare our felves for Divine Grace by a Purity and Holiness of Converfation, to avoid all Pleafures and Cares which grieve the Holy Spirit, and feparate him from us, to live in a daily conftant State of Prayer and Devotion, and Kk 2

as

as the Crown of all to imitate the Life and Spirit of the Holy Jesus.

IT now only remains, that I exhort the Reader to labour after this Chriftian Perfection. Was I to exhort any one to the Study of Poetry or Eloquence, to labour to be Rich and Great, or to fpend his Time in Mathematicks or other Learning, I could only produce fuch Reasons as are fit to delude the Vanity of Men, who are ready to be taken with any Appearance of Excellence. For if the fame Perfon was to ask me, what it fignifies to be a Poet or Eloquent, what Advantage it would be to him, to be a great Mathematician, or a great Statefman, I must be forc'd to answer, that these Things would fignifie just as much to him, as they now fignify to those Poets, Orators, Mathematicians, and Statesmen, whose Bodies have been a long while loft amongst common Duft. For if a Man will but be fo thoughtful and inquifitive,_as to put the Question to every human Enjoyment, and ask what real Good it would bring along with it, he would foon find, that every Success amongst the Things of this Life, leaves us juft in the fame State of Want and Emptiness in which it found us. If a Man asks why he should labour to be the firft Mathematician, Orator, or Statesman, the Answer is easily given, be

cause

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cause of the Fame and Honour of fuch a Diftinction, but if he was to ask again, why he should thirst after Fame and Honour, or what Good they would do him, he must stay long enough for an Answer. For when we are at the Top of all human Attainments, we are still at the Bottom of all human Mifery, and have made no farther Advancement towards true Happiness, than thofe, whom we fee in the Want of all these Excellencies. Whether a Man die before he has writ Poems, compil'd Hiftories, or rais'd an Eftate, fignifies no more, than whether he dy'd an hundred, or a thousand Years ago.

ON the contrary, when any one is exhorted to labour after Chriftian Perfection, if he then asks what Good it will do him, the Answer is ready, that it would do him a Good, which Eternity only can measure, that it will deliver him from a State of Vanity and Misery, that it will raise him from the poor Enjoyments of an animal Life, that it will give him a glorious Body, carry him in fpite of Death and the Grave to live with God, be Glorious among Angels and Heavenly Beings, and be full of an infinite Happiness to all Eternity. If therefore we could but make Men fo reafonable, as to make the shortest Enquiry into the Nature of Things, we fhould have no OcKk 3 cafion