6. Neither will the sacraments, fourthly, be ever undervalued or neglected by a prudent Christian, who never thinks himself either too wise or too good for any institution of God. As to the Lord’s supper in particular, he never omits any opportunity of receiving it, knowing the excellent ends for which it serves, and its great usefulness to serve them. It serves as a sensible image of the death of Christ, and of our spiritual communion with him; as a memorial of his atonement for our sins, actually applying it to ourselves. In short, it serves as a channel to convey all the blessings of God to us, and as a pledge to assure us of them. And in all this he admires the wisdom and goodness of God, in making this merciful provision for his church, who, considering our frame, and how large a share sense has in our composition, was pleased, in condescension to our infirmity, to address himself to us by that weaker side of our nature; and lest, in such a croud of sensible objects, as we daily converse with, we should (as we are too apt) be tempted to forget him, was pleased, by those very objects, to bring us to himself, by making use of some of them as his remembrancers, and as steps whereby we might ascend to the contemplation of the most spiritual and heavenly mysteries.
7. Church-communion, in the last place, is an excellent means for the mutual edification of Christians; for the preservation of the Christian faith and doctrine, and for the encouragement of Christian practice. And since for these and the like reasons, God, by his Son Jesus Christ, has erected and constituted that spiritual society call’d a church, whereof the same Jesus Christ is the head, as that is his body, according to the apostle; Christian prudence obliges every man not to look upon himself only as a private or independent Christian, that is at liberty to serve God as he pleases, in his own solitary way, but as a member of this one church, whereof Christ is the head, and consequently bound to hold communion with it. This therefore, a prudent Christian will be sure to do, and think it a great happiness and privilege to have such a help, to enjoy the communion of saints, and worship God in the assemblies of his people. From these he will by no means excommunicate himself: but as he is in spirit united to the whole Christian church, so he actually communicates with that particular branch of it, whereof he is a member: and hereby he shews his union with the whole, in which he will be careful to make no schism; lest, by dividing from that church whereof Christ is the head, he be divided from Christ, his end as well as his way.
CHAPTER IV.
The conduct of a prudent Christian, with regard to the government of himself.
1.HITHERTO we have been conducting our prudent Christian to his end, by the chief of the ways that lead to it, viz. by the direct and immediate means of happiness, first, the duties of the divine law, and then by the means to those means, such of them in particular, as are of divine appointment. For the application of which, it may now be convenient to draw a little nearer, and consider the conduct which a prudent Christian uses in the government of himself.
2. And first let us consider [♦]how the prudent Christian pursues improvement by the government of his senses. He does not study the pleasing of his senses. This indeed many make the great end of their lives, which are almost wholly devoted to the pursuit, and spent in the various entertainments of sensible pleasure; as if they thought (and perhaps some of them do) that their supreme happiness consisted in it. But this a prudent Christian will not do; for he knows we are already too much in love with sensible pleasure, the great disease of our nature, and therefore will not by indulging it inflame a passion which is already too violent. *He finds that as the more we abstain from these pleasures, the more cold we grow to them, so by indulgence our appetite acquires a new edge, and grows the more sharp and keen: he that drinks of this water shall not only thirst again, but the more he drinks, he shall thirst the more. He considers likewise, how entirely different from these, are the intellectual pleasures of heaven, and how apt the love of them is to indispose us for these, and in this sense to alienate us from the life of God. He is therefore so far from feasting his senses (as the manner of the world is) by all the variety of studied entertainments, that he endeavours by all manner of ways to mortify them, and instead of setting up for a soft, voluptuous life (according to St. Paul’s advice to Timothy) inures himself to hardships, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ: Not indeed by any such rigid austerities, as would destroy or impair his health, but by such a sparing use of, and well-governed abstemiousness from, even those pleasures which are lawful in themselves, as may deaden his love to them, and make him more indifferent to the enjoyment of them.
[♦] inserted the word “how” per Errata
[♦]4. He will likewise keep a strict guard over his senses themselves; as knowing they are the inlets of temptation, the landing ports of our spiritual enemies, and the feeble parts of our nature, which expose us to continual danger. Particularly, what can be more dangerous than an unguarded eye or ear, while there is every day so much to be seen and to be heard, to provoke to wickedness, and so little to encourage holiness? Over these therefore he keeps a constant guard, to prevent invasion and surprize, especially over the eye, the most dangerous of the two, as being concerned with more objects: praying also to God, without whose keeping the city the watchman waketh but in vain, To turn away his eyes lest they behold vanity, and to quicken him in his way; that nothing he sees or hears in this his pilgrimage, may either turn him out of it, or hinder him in it.
[♦] point “3.” skipped in text