holy fear partakes of the nature of this, which divines call angelical, and it is expressed in acts of adoration, of vows, and holy prayers, in hymns, and psalms, in the eucharist and reverential addresses; and while it proceeds in the usual measures of common duty, it is but humane; but as it arises to great degrees, and to perfection, it is angelical and divine; and then it appertains to mystick theology, and therefore is to be considered in another place; but for the present, that which will regularly concern all our duty, is this, that when the fear of God is the instrument of our duty, or God's worship, the greater it is, it is so much the better. It was an oid proverbial saying among the Romans, religentem esse, oportet; religiosum, nefas;* every excess in the actions of religion is criminal; they supposing that in the services of their gods there might be too much. True it is, there may be too much of their indecent expressions, and in things indifferent the very multitude is too much, and becomes an indecency and if it be in its own nature indecent or disproportionable to the end, or the rules, or the analogy of the religion, it will not stay for numbers to make it intolerable; but in the direct actions of glorifying God, in doing any thing of his commandments, or any thing which he commands, or counsels, or promises to reward, there can never be excess or superfluity: and therefore, in these cases, do as much as you can; take care that your expressions be prudent and safe, consisting with thy other duties; and for the passions or virtues them selves, let them pass from beginning to great progresses, from man to angel, from the imperfection of man to the perfections of the sons of God; and whenever we go beyond the bounds of nature, and grow up with all the extension, and in

* To be religious is a virtue; to be superstitious, a crime.

the very commensuration of a full grace, we shall never go beyond the excellencies of God: for ornament may be too much and turn to curiosity: cleanliness may be changed into niceness; and civil compliance may become flattery; and mobility of tongue may rise into garrulity; and fame and honour may be great unto envy; and health itself, if it be athletick, may by its very excess become dangerous: but wisdom, and duty, and comeliness, and discipline, a good mind, and the fear of God, and doing honour to his holy name, can never exceed: but if they swell to great proportions, they pass through the measures of grace, and are united to felicity in the comprehensions of God, in the joys of an eternal glory.

SERMON X.

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT.

PART I.

MAT. xxvi. 41. LATTER PART.

The Spirit indeed is willing, but the Flesh is weak.

FROM the beginning of days man hath been so cross to the divine commandments, that in many cases there can be no reason given why a man should choose some ways or do some actions, but only because they are forbidden. When God bade the Israelites rise and go up against the Canaanites and possess the land, they would not stir; the men were Anakims, and the cities were impregnable; and there was a lion in the way: but presently after, when God forbade them to go, they would and did go, though they died for it. I shall not need to instance in ticulars, when the whole life of man is a perpetual contradiction; and the state of disobedience is called the contradiction of sinners; even the man in the Gospel, that had two sons, they both crossed him, even he that obeyed him, and he that obeyed him not: for the one said, he would, and did not; the other said, he would not, and did and so do we; we promise fair, and do nothing; and they that do best,

par

are such as come out of darkness into light, such as said they would not, and at last have better bethought themselves. And who can guess at any other reason, why men should refuse to be temperate? for he that refuseth the commandment, first does violence to the commandment, and puts on a preternatural appetite; he spoils his health and he spoils his understanding; he brings to himself a world of diseases and a healthless constitution; smart and sickly nights, a loathing stomach and a staring eye, a giddy brain, and a swelled belly, gouts and dropsies; catarrhs and oppilations. If God should enjoin men to suffer all this, heaven and earth should have heard our complaints against unjust laws, and impossible commandments: for we complain already, even when God commands us to drink so long as it is good for us: this is one of the impossible laws; it is impossible for us to know when we are dry, or when we need drink; for if we do know, I am sure it is possible enough, not to lift up the wine to our heads. And when our blessed Saviour hath commanded us to love our enemies, we think we have so much reason against it, that God will easily excuse our disobedience in this case; and yet there are some enemies, whom God hath commanded us not to love, and those we dote on, we cherish and feast them; and as St. Paul in another case, upon our uncomely parts we bestow more abundant comeliness. For whereas our body itself is a servant to our soul, we make it the heir of all things, and treat it here already, as if it were in majority; and make that, which at the best was but a weak friend, to become a strong enemy; and hence proceed the vices of the worst, and the follies and imperfections of the best: the spirit is either in slavery, or in weakness, and when the flesh is not strong to mischief, it is weak to goodness; and

even to the Apostles our blessed Lord said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The Spirit] that is,

wards, the inward man, or the reasonable part of man, especially as helped by the spirit of grace, that is willing; for it is the principle of all good actions, the the ενεργητικών, power of working is from the spirit; but the flesh is but a dull instrument, and a broken arm, in which there is a principle of life, but it moves uneasily; and the flesh is so weak, that in scripture, to be in the flesh, signifies a state of weakness and infirmity; so the humiliation of Christ is expressed by being in the flesh, Jess pangades o ragni, God manifested in the flesh; and what St. Peter calls [put to death in the flesh,] St. Paul calls [crucified through weakness ;] and, ye know that through the infirmity of the flesh I preached unto you, said St. Paul: but here, flesh is not opposed to the spirit as a direct enemy, but as a weak servant: for if the flesh be powerful and opposite, the spirit stays not there:

veniunt ad candida tecta columbae :*

The old man and the new cannot dwell together; and therefore here, where the spirit inclining to good, well disposed, and apt to holy counsels, does inhabit in society with the flesh, it means only a weak and unapt nature, or a state of infant-grace; for in both these, and in these only, the text is verified.

1. Therefore we are to consider the infirmities of the flesh naturally. 2. Its weakness in the first beginnings of the state of grace, its daily pretensions and temptations, its excuses and lessenings of duty. 3. What remedies there are in the spirit to cure the evils of nature. 4. How far the weakness of the flesh can consist with the spirit of grace in well-grown Christians: this is the sum of what I intend upon these words.

* For fair abodes allure the gentle Dove.