A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

II. I now come to the Positive Part, where the Duty of Man is distributed into three kinds. Look as in a moral Consideration, there are but three Beings, God, Neighbours, and Self; so here the Apostle makes three Parts and Branches of our Duty; that we should live soberly as to our selves; righteously as to our Neighbour; godly, that the Lord may not be defrauded of his Portion. Sobriety respects the Duties of our personal Capacity; Righteousness the Duties of our Relation to others; and Piety the Duties of immediate Intercourse with God.

I begin with the first of the Apostle's Adverbs, That we should live soberly. Sobriety is a Grace very necessary, we can neither be righteous nor pious without it; for he that is not sober, he takes to himself more than is due, and so can neither give God nor Man their Portion. If he be unsober, he will be unjust; he robs the Church of his Parts which are quenched in Pleasure, the Common-wealth of his Service, the Family of their Maintenance and necessary Provision; and then the Poor are robbed, because that which should be spent in their Relief, is wasted in Luxury. And then he that is unsober, cannot be godly, for he doth not give God his Portion, he robs God of his time, and (which is worse) of his Heart; for that being carried out to Pleasure, it is deprived of the Fruition of God, and transported from better Delights. So that if we would discharge our Duty to God or Man, if we would live righteously and piously, we must live soberly. Once more (that you may a little conceive of the Weight and Consequence of this Discourse) Sobriety is a part of Virtue's Armour; so much is intimated by the Apostle, 2 Pet. 1.5, 6. Add to your Faith Virtue, and to Virtue Knowledge, and to Knowledge Temperance, and to Temperance Patience. Virtue or Strictness of Life is rooted in Faith, directed by Knowledge, defended and maintained by Temperance and Patience; by Temperance on the right hand, and Patience on the left: as Fortitude or Patience is necessary to arm Grace against Dangers, so is Temperance or Sobriety to arm it against Pleasures and worldly Comforts. It is hard to say which we need most, Temperance or Patience; we must expect Hardships, and still we live among Snares, but only Snares are more frequent than Troubles; as more Birds are ensnared by the Net than killed by the Birding-piece. Persecution hath slain its Thousands, but Pleasures their ten Thousands: Therefore you see Sobriety is of great Use in the spiritual Life: As we need to press Faith as the Root of Virtue, and Knowledge as the Guide of Virtue; so we need to press Temperance and Patience as the Guard