4. A hearty sorrow, shame, and remorse for our sins past.

5. Earnest prayer to God for aid and assistance to enable us effectually to renounce them.

6. A serious and well-weighed resolution to forsake and abandon them for ever.

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I. It is necessary to our good beginning of this our Christian warfare, that we should heartily believe the truth and reality of our religion. For our hearty belief of the gospel is in scripture represented as the main and principal weapon by which we are to combat against the world and our own lusts. And hence it is called the shield of faith, and the breastplate of faith, which are the two principal parts of armour of defence; denoting that an hearty belief of the gospel is the principal defence of a Christian against all the fiery darts of temptation; the armour of proof that guards our innocence, and renders us invulnerable in all our spiritual conflicts. For, above all things, saith the apostle, take the shield of faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, Ephes. vi. 16. And as it is the principal part of our defensive, so it is also of our of fensive armour: for so we find all the victories and triumphs of those glorious heroes, Heb. xi. attributed to this irresistible weapon of their faith. It was by faith that they despised crowns, confronted the anger of kings, and triumphed over the bitterest torments and afflictions; by faith that they wrought righteously, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, and out of weakness were made strong. Nay, so great a share hath faith in the successes of our Christian warfare, that it is called by

the apostle the good fight of faith, 1 Tim. vi. 12. and St. John assures us, that this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, 1 John v. 4.

For if we firmly believe the gospel, that will furnish us with undeniable answers to return to all temptations, and enable us infinitely to outbid the world, whatsoever it should proffer us for our innocence. For our belief of the gospel carries in the one hand infinitely greater goods, and in the other infinitely greater evils, to allure and bind us fast to our duty, than any the world can propose, to entice or terrify us from it. For on the one hand it discovers to us those immortal regions of the blessed, which are the proper seat and pure element of happiness; where the blessed inhabitants live in a continual fruition of their utmost wishes, being every moment entertained with fresh and enravishing scenes of pleasure; where all their happiness is eternal, and all their eternity nothing else but one continued act of love, and praise, and joy, and triumph; where there are no sighs or tears; no intermixtures of sorrow or misery; but every heart is full of joy, and every joy is a quintessence, and every happy moment is crowned with some fresh and new enjoyment. On the other hand, it sets before our eyes a most frightful and amazing prospect of those dismal shades of horror, where mighty numbers of condemned ghosts perpetually wander to and fro, tormented with endless rage and despair; where they always burn without consuming, always faint but never die, being forced to languish out a long eternity in unpitied sighs and groans and after such a prospect as this, what poor inconsiderable trifles will all the goods and evils of this world ap

pear to us! But yet unless we believe the reality of them, how great soever they may be in themselves, they will signify no more to our hope and fear (which are the master-springs of our action) than if they were so many golden dreams or lifeless scarecrows. For all proposals of good and evil do work upon the minds of men proportionably as they are believed and assented to; as that which is not true, is not; so that which we do not believe, is to us as if it were not. How then is it possible we should be moved by that good or evil which we do not believe, and in which, by consequence, we cannot apprehend ourselves concerned?

Wherefore in our entrance into the Christian warfare it is highly necessary that we do not take up our faith at a venture, and believe winking, without knowing why or wherefore; but that we should, so far as we are able, impartially examine the evidences of our religion, and search into the grounds of its credibility, that so we may be able to give some reason to ourselves and others of the hope that is in us. For which end it will be needful that we should read, and impartially consider, some of the apologies for the Christian religion; of which we have sundry excellent ones in our own language; and if we will but take the pains to instruct ourselves in the plain and easy evidences of Christianity, we shall quickly see abundant cause to assent to it; and then our faith, being founded on a firm basis of reason, will be able to bid defiance to the world, and to outstand the most furious storms of temptation.

II. To our good beginning of this our Christian

* Dr. Stillingfleet's Origines; Dr. Patrick's Translation of Grotius; Sir Charles Wolsely.

warfare, it is also necessary that we should duly consider the motives of our religion, and balance them with the hardships and difficulties we are to undergo. For thus our Saviour makes consideration a necessary introduction to our Christian warfare, Luke xiv. 28. where he compares men's rushing headlong into the difficulties of the Christian life without consideration, to a man's resolving to build a tower without counting the charge of it, or a king's going to war without ever considering beforehand, whether with his army of ten thousand he be able to encounter his enemy with twenty: by both which comparisons he intimates to us the unprosperous issue of men's listing themselves under his banner to combat the Devil, the world, and their own lusts, without ever considering beforehand either their own strength or the enemies, the arguments with which they must fight, or the difficulties that will cross and oppose them. So that when they come to execute their rash resolutions, there start up so many difficulties in their way which they never thought of, and against which they took no care to forearm themselves, that they have not the heart and courage to stand before them; but after a few faint attempts are presently sounding a cowardly

retreat.

For indeed consideration is the life and soul of faith, that animates and actuates its principles, and elicits and draws forth all their natural power and energy. And let the truths we believe be never so weighty and momentous in themselves, never so apt to spirit and invigorate us, yet unless we seriously consider and apply them to our wills and affections, and take the pains to extract out of them their na

tive vigour and efficacy, and to infuse it into our faculties and powers, they will lie like so many dead notions in our minds, and never impart to us the least degree of spiritual courage and activity. And accordingly our Saviour attributes the ill success of God's word in the hearts of men, (which he compares to the highway, the stony and thorny ground,) either to their not considering it at all, or to their not considering it deeply enough, or to their not considering it long enough. Either the divine truths which they heard went no farther than their ears, and so lay openly exposed, like so many loose corns upon the highway, to be picked up by the fowls of the air; or if it entered into their mind and consideration, it was so slightly and superficially, that, like corn sown in a rocky ground, it had not depth enough to take root, to fasten and grow into their minds, and digest into principles of action; or if they at present received it into their deeper and more serious consideration, it was but for a little while; for by and by they permit their worldly cares and pleasures, like thorns, to spring up in their thoughts and choke it, before it was arrived to any maturity but that which rendered it so prosperous and fruitful in good and honest hearts was, that having heard the word, they kept it, i. e. retained it in their thoughts and consideration, and so brought forth fruit with patience, Luke viii. 12-15. So that to the making of a good beginning in religion, it is not only necessary that we should ponder the motives and arguments of religion, and balance them with the difficulties of it, but that we should revolve and repeat them in our minds, till we have represented to ourselves with the utmost life and