SER M. upon, I referve for other meditations; when we fhall XVIII. endeavour more diftinctly to fhew how we may apply our thoughts to due objects; how curb and correct our inclinations; how order our paffions; how rectify our opinions; how purify our intentions; now I conclude with the good Pfalmift's requests Pf. lxxxvi. to God Almighty: Teach us thy way, O Lord; unite our hearts to fear thy name. Give us understanding, and we shall keep thy law; yea we shall obferve it Pr. cxxxix. with our whole heart. Search us, O God, and know our hearts; try us, and know our thoughts ; fee if there be any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlafting. Amen.

II.

Pfal. cxix.

34.

23, 24.

SERMON

SERMON XIX.

Of Submiffion to the Divine Will.

LUKE Xxii. 42.

Nevertheless let not my will, but thine, be done.

THE great controverfy, managed with fuch S ER M.

1

earneftnefs and obftinacy between God and man, xix. is this, whose will fhall take place, his or ours. Almighty God, by whofe conftant protection and great mercy we fubfift, doth claim to himself the authority of regulating our practice, and difpofing our fortunes: but we affect to be our own mafters and carvers; not willingly admitting any law, not patiently brooking any condition, which doth not fort with our fancy and pleasure. To make good his right, God bendeth all his forces, and applieth all proper means both of sweetness and severity, (perfuading us by arguments, foliciting us by entreaties, alluring us by fair promifes, fcaring us by fierce menaces, indulging ample benefits to us, inflicting fore corrections on us, working in us and upon us by secret influences of grace, by vifible difpenfations of providence ;) yet fo it is, that commonly nothing doth

SER M. avail, our will oppofing itself with invincible refoluXIX. tion and stiffness.

Here indeed the business pincheth; herein as the chief worth, fo the main difficulty of religious practice confifteth, in bending that iron finew; in bringing our proud hearts to ftoop, and our sturdy humours to buckle, fo as to furrender and refign our wills to the juft, the wife, the gracious will of our God, prefcribing our duty, and affigning our lot unto us. We may accuse our nature, but it is our pleasure; we may pretend weakness, but it is wilTom. 6. fulness, which is the guilty cause of our misdemean1 Cor. Or. ors; for by God's help (which doth always prevent 17. Tom. 5. Our needs, and is never wanting to those who feOr. 28, 43. riously defire it) we may be as good as we please, if

Chryf.

Or. 12. in

we can please to be good; there is nothing within us that can refift, if our wills do yield themselves up to duty to conquer our reason is not hard; for what reason of man can withstand the infinite cogency of those motives, which induce to obedience ? What can be more eafy, than by a thousand arguments, clear as day, to convince any man, that to cross God's will is the greatest abfurdity in the world, and that there is no madness comparable thereto ? Nor is it difficult, if we refolve upon it, to govern any other part or power of our nature; for what cannot we do, if we are willing? What inclination cannot we check, what appetite cannot we restrain, what paffion cannot we quell or moderate? What faculty of our foul, or member of our body, is not obfequious to our will? Even half the resolution with which we pursue vanity and fin, would serve to engage us in the ways of wisdom and virtue.

Wherefore in overcoming our will the stress lieth; this is that impregnable fortrefs, which everlastingly doth hold out against all the batteries of reason and of grace; which no force of perfuafion, no allure

ii. 12.

Quodcunque fibi imperavit animus obtinuit. Sen. de Ira,

ment

ment of favour, no difcouragement of terror can s ER M. reduce this puny, this impotent thing it is, which XIX. grappleth with omnipotency, and often in a manner baffleth it and no wonder, for that God doth not intend to overpower our will, or to make any violent impreffion on it, but only to draw it (as it is in the Prophet) with the cords of a man, or by rational in- Hof. xi. 4. ducements to win its confent and compliance: our service is not fo confiderable to him, that he should extort it from us; nor doth he value our happiness at fo low a rate, as to obtrude it on us. His victory indeed were no true victory over us, if he should gain it by main force, or without the concurrence of our will; our works not being our works, if they do not iffue from our will; and our will not being our will, if it be not free: to compel it were to deftroy it, together with all the worth of our virtue and obedience: wherefore the Almighty doth fuffer himself to be withstood, and beareth repulfes from us; nor commonly doth he mafter our will otherwise, than by its own fpontaneous converfion and fubmiffion to him: if ever we be conquered, as we shall fhare in the benefit, and wear a crown; fo we must join in the combat, and partake of the victory, by fubduing ourselves: we must take the yoke upon us; for God is only ferved by volunteers; he fummoneth us by his word, he attracteth us by his grace, but we muft freely come unto him.

Our will indeed of all things is moft our own; the only gift, the moft proper facrifice we have to offer; which therefore God doth chiefly defire, doth moft highly prize, doth most kindly accept from us. Seeing then our duty chiefly moveth on this hinge, the free fubmiffion and refignation of our will to the will of God; it is this practice, which our Lord

b Ἐπεὶ τῦτο καὶ αὐτὰ διαβάλλει τὰ ἀγαθὰ εἰ μὴ τοιαύτη αὐτῶν ἰσιν ἡ φύσις, ὡς καὶ ἑκόντας προσδραμεῖν, καὶ χάριν ἔχειν πολλήν. Chryf. in A. Cor. Orat. 2,

(who

SER M. (who came to guide us in the way to happiness, not XIX. only as a teacher by his word and excellent doctrine,

but as a leader, by his actions and perfect example) did especially fet before us, as in the conftant tenour of his life, fo particularly in that great exigency which occafioned thefe words, wherein renouncing and deprecating his own will, he did exprefs an entire fubmiffion to God's will, a hearty complacence therein, and a ferious defire that it might take place.

For the fuller understanding of which cafe, we may confider, that our Lord, as partaker of our nature, and, in all things (bating fin) like unto us, had a natural human will, attended with fenfes, appetites, and affections, apt from objects incident to receive congruous impreffions of pleasure and pain; fo that whatever is innocently grateful and pleasant to us, that he relished with delight, and thence did incline to embrace; whatever is diftafteful and afflictive to us, that he refented with grief, and thence was moved to efchew to this probably he was liable in a degree beyond our ordinary rate; for that in him nature was moft perfect, his complexion very delicate, his temper exquifitely found and fine; for fo we find, that by how much any man's conftitution is more found, by fo much he hath a fmarter guft of what is agreeable or offenfive to nature: if perhaps fometimes infirmity of body, or diftemper of foul (a favage ferity, a ftupid dulness, a fondness of conceit, or ftiffness of humour, fupported by wild opinions, or vain hopes) may keep men from being thus affected by fenfible objects; yet in him pure nature did work vigoroufly, with a clear apprehenfion and lively fenfe, according to the defign of our Maker, when into our conftitution he did implant thofe paffive faculties, difpofing objects to affect them fo and fo, for our need and advantage; if this be deemed weakness, it is a weakness connexed with our nature, which he therewith did take, and with ardinia. which, as the Apoftle faith, he was encompassed.

Ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐ

τὸς περίκειται

Heb. v. 2.

Such