He is One that keeps a Guard upon himself; that fets a Watch before his Mouth, and will guide his Words with Difcretion: One that has his Paffions and Affections under Government, and orders his Steps according to God's Word: Or though he may Fall, he will Arife, and not fuffer Iniquity to have Dominion over him: But is Careful to approve himself both to God and Men, and studies to be as Wife and Good as he can in the whole Course of his Life and Actions; and is ftill going on unto Perfection more and more in all Holy Converfation and Godli nefs. Such a Man, though he is not abso lutely Perfect, a Pure Sinless Creature, yet at the prefent Rate of Human Nature, may well deferve the Character of a Perfect Man: And it is much easier to give the Character, than to make it Good; or but to find out the Man to whom it does truly belong.

The Upright Man is what we call the downright Honeft Man; that is always the fame, Confiftent with himself, Careful of his Words and Actions; Uniform in his Conduct, True to his Word, and Faithful to his Truft: A Man of Sincerity, Plain and Open-hearted, without Deceit or Guile; fuch a One as St. James defcribes, Chap. iii. He is a Wife Man, and endued with Knowledge; and fhews out of a good Converfation his Works with Meekness of Wisdom.That Wisdom which is from above, which

is firft Pure, then Peaceable, Gentle, and Eafy to be intreated, full of Mercy and Good Works, without Partiality and without Hypocrify. He is Willing and Defirous to do his Duty in all things, Religiously and Confcientiously as in the Sight of God; and where he cannot Do it to Exactness, will yet do it in Truth and Sincerity, and with a Faithful Heart. In Matters of Duty he liftens to no Carnal Suggestions of Difficulty or Danger; as St. Paul had no fooner received his Commiffion, but immediately (fays he,) I conferred not with Flesh and Blood, Gal. i. 16. and went directly, at all Hazards, to Preach Chrift to the Barbarous Arabians.

The Upright Man will never engage in an Ill Defign, nor ufe any Unlawful Means for the accomplishing of Any Defign. He governs not himself by Common Talk, nor by other Men's Opinion, nor by the Current of the Times, but by his own well-informed Judgment: The Good Man (fays Solomon,) is fatisfy'd from himself *, and when he is fatisfy'd in himself, Nothing shakes him; he stands firm upon his own Basis, and fteers on his Courfe by fteddy Rules and Principles, in spite of Reproach and Cenfure.

* Juftum & tenacem Propofiti Virum,
Non Civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus inftantis Tyranni,

Mente quatit Solidâ

Si fractus illabatur Orbis,

Impavidum ferient Ruinæ,

Hor. Od.

He

He never confiders in the First Place, what would be moft for his own Advantage, nor what would best please Other Men; bur without any Sinifter Regards or By-Refpects, he takes Care in every Cafe to Do what is moft Fit and Juft: And according to the Station and Circumftances in which God has plac'd him, endeavours to Do what Good he can in all Relations and Capacities: For having made the Law of God the Rule of his Life, and refolved not to depart from it, he walketh Uprightly and Surely in the Ways of his Commandments: The Law of God is in his Heart, (as the Pfalmift describes the Upright Man,) and therefore his Footsteps will not Slide: Nothing can draw him afide, neither to the Right Hand nor to the Left; Nothing can tempt him Knowingly to Do an Ill Thing: He will not willingly Omit any Known Duty, nor Commit any Known Sin, nor Do any thing against the Sense of his own Mind, for his Heart afterwards to Reproach him with, or his Conscience condemn him for: But living in the Fear of God all the Day long, and governing himself by the fame Principles in his Retirements and Private Actions, as in the moft Publick Stages Acts xxiv. of his Life, he always keeps a Confcience Void of Offence, both towards God and alfo towards Men.

16.

Thus you fee, that by Human Uprightnefs and Perfection I do not mean Perfecti

on to the Degree of Angels, but the Perfection and Accomplishment of Human Nature, by the Best Helps we have both Moral and Divine: It is the Improvement of our Reason by the Rules and good Influences of Religion. It is the Reftoring, in some meafure, the Defaced Image of God in Man, and the Recovering of him, as far as is now poffible, to his Original Rectitude and primitive State of Innocency and Perfection: It is a great Advancement in Goodness, Virtue, and Piety, and Divine Knowledge; It is Clearnefs of Confcience, and Sincerity and Integrity of Heart and Life: It is a Habit of Holiness; a Frame of Mind fettled to that which is Good, and an Exemplary Life; Regular and Unblameable in the General Tenour of it; and a Hearty Repentance for any Miscarriages.

In this Senfe only it was, that Zacharias and Elizabeth are faid to have walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord Blameless. In this Senfe was Noah faid to be Righteous; and fo of Asa it is recorded, that his Heart was Perfect with the Lord: And thus is Job Characteriz'd as a Perfect and an Upright Man. And yet these very Men have their Faults and Failings recorded in the fame Books, notwithftanding the Characters they there have of Uprightness and Perfection.

From

From all which it is very plain, what is the Scripture-Notion of Human Perfection; A Perfection of Sincerity, not a Perfection of Obedience. Not Abfolute Unfinning Holiness, but the nearest to it that we can attain: And where it is not Innocence, it is Repentance. But Pure and Spotless Innocence, an intire Exemption from Inadvertences and Frailties, and from all Blemishes of Soul and Life, is not attainable by us in this our Mortal State: That is more than any one can truly now pretend to, in this lapsed State of Prov. xx. Human Nature. Who can fay, (fays the Royal 9. Preacher Solomon,) that is, None can truly fay, I have made mine Heart Clean, I am Pure from my Sin? Job humbly confeffes Job ix, 20. of himself, If I justify my self, mine own Heart fhall Condemn me; If I fay Fam Perfect, it shall prove me Perverfe. So that all that Job pretended to, was not a Perfection of Innocence, but only a Perfection of Inte grity And That was what he was firmly refolv'd to adhere to, to his Dying Day, and Nothing should ever move him from it, Chap. xxvii. Till 1 Die I will not remove mine Integrity from me; My Righteousness I hold Faft and will not let it go; Mine Heart fhall not reproach me as long as I live. And God himself bears him witness, that he did hold faft his Integrity, and that to such a Degree, that God was pleas'd thereupon to approve and accept his Righteousness: For