Soul may be purified No doubt of this Refiners Art or Skill Is his Will doubted of It is one with the Will of God and Gods Will is that we be purified 1 Thess. 4. 3. And Christ is no teacher of loosness but of the height of Righteousness 'T is not the privilege of the Gospel that we may sin securely because Christus solvit but that we may live more exactly because Christ requires it and doth inwardly enable us to perform it See also Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Here we will acknowledge that God is able his Spirit is willing but we are uncapable of so great a good by reason of the infirmity of the Flesh But answer me O vain man what is this infirmity of the Flesh is it not the strength of Sin And is there any strength that can withstand the powerful operation of the Spirit of God The weakness or strength if you will of the Body bears it towards the Earth but the fire and activity of the Natural Spirits bears it above and enables it to walk upright on the Earth contrary to be bend of its own Essence and Nature Shall not the Spirit of God then be as able to actuate and lead the Soul contrary to its accidental and ascititious Principles as the Natural Spirits to actuate the Body contrary to its innate and essential Principles Certainly if it be not effectual in us we our selves are in fault who abuse our shuffling Phansie and Reason to fend off the stroke and power of Truth that at once would cleave our hearts that 's a tender place the seat of Life it self and any Religion but that which kills us and mortifies us The Devil knew well enough what he said and his Children make it good Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his life This is the shuffling hypocrisie of the Natural Spirit of man and the root of infidelity But let us make better use of this precious Scripture Seeing ye obeyed the Truth through the Spirit 1 st For the encrease of Faith and Confidence and Courage in the wayes of Obedience sith we have so strong assistance as the Spirit of our God with true Christian Fortitude to conflict with all our Spiritual Enemies wearing that Motto in our Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 dly For hearty Thankfulness to God when ever we find our selves successful in our Spiritual Warfare as to the only giver of Victory 3 dly and lastly For Humility AEquanimity and Christian Patience and expectancy towards our Neighbours that are not yet reclaim'd from their evil ways being compassionate over them not to insult in other mens weaknesses and miscarriages sith we our selves stand not by our own power but by the gracious assistance of our Saviour Jesus Christ And certainly Purification arrived at its full end will easily afford us this for the end of Purification is Brotherly Love which is the Fourth Doctrine Doct. IV. That this Purification of the Soul and Obedience to the Truth through the Spirit is for this end viz. the eliciting of Brotherly Love and Sincerity in the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are distinguished as 2 Pet. 1. 7. But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be as large as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know nothing considerable to the contrary The word is capable of that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used in as great a latitude as Proximus and Alter including all that descended from our Father Adam So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the love of our Neighbour and this Love is the end and height of our Purification and Obedience the aim and scope of it as much as concerns the Second Table Rom. 13. 9 10. and 1 Tim. 1. 5. Who is able to express so Divine an excellency For certainly the unfeigned Love of men is the very Divine Love it self whereby God loves himself and all things and we also love God and all things in reference to him This is that Love of whom the whole Universe was begotten and that rock'd the cradle of the Infant World the very Spirit of God whose Splendour none can behold and live for he must first be dead to himself and extinguish the love of himself before he can be touch'd and quickened by this Spirit of Life and Love THUS much for the Doctrines included in the First main Argument In the Second are these viz. Doctrine I. That there is a Regeneration of the Soul By understanding what Generation is we may better know what is Regeneration 1. The notion in general of Generation according to Aristotle implies no more than a right and fit union of a form substantial with some capable subject whether that form be elicited of the subject or matter or be brought in from elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks of the Rational Soul 2. There may be more Forms substantial than one in one subject so they be but subordinate one to the other and that a new Species doth not arise so much from the destruction of the pre-existent Form as by addition of a new one which might actuate the whole that doth pre-exist As the numerus ternarius is not made by taking from the numerus binarius but by adding an Unite thereto Thus Aristotle seems to speak Metaph. 7. Cap. 3. 3. Observe That one Soul actuating a Body if any part of that Body be cut off and lose the benefit of information suppose an Hand or Foot that is then said to be but equivocally what it was before which implies it is then of another Nature or Species as much of it as there is though it be not an entire substance if compared with the whole and consequently that the Soul actuating it did then specificate it another way We have now a tolerable insight into Generation and Regeneration is but this twice told That which is this specifical substance now by adding a new substantial Form thereto becomes something else This is Regeneration And to apply it to our selves We are already once born according to Nature our Bodies and Souls being fitly united together by him that is the Father of all Life and the Lord of Nature But though we be thus specificated yet we are not thence perfected but this Binary of Body and Soul the Pythagoreans would
his Auditors by a twofold means or artifice First by insinuating into their Affections by a kind and friendly compellation and humbleness of Address Dearly beloved I beseech you And then by convincing their Reason by solid Argumentation Which is fetch'd from a twofold Topick from the enmity and active hostility of these fleshly lusts against our Souls and from the Dignity and Sanctity of our Souls themselves intimating that the state of this present World with the enjoyments of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing too much estranged from unsuitable to or unworthy of a Being of so high a nature and Divine extraction as the Soul of Man to be engaged in or any thing taken with This is the summe of the Text. WE will begin with the Duty we are exhorted to the abstinence from Fleshly Lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is too trivial to take notice that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does as well signifie Desire at large or natural appetite in which there is no hurt as Inordinate desire which we ordinarily understand by Lust though that English word also was of an indifferent meaning in the ancient use thereof But this honest and allowable sense of the word we may be sure is not meant in the Text both because the Precept were impossible to be performed without manifest violence and injury done to Nature for we cannot live without Eating and Drinking and Sleeping and also because of that Epithet added to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which yet denotes the pravity of these Desires rather than their Original For Flesh in a natural sense is of as harmless a signification as Desire as where the Apostle sayes No man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fleshly Lust is taken in such a sense as it is where it is opposed to the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. For the flesh lasteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other as appears more manifestly from their fruits or works The works of the flesh are manifest saith the Apostle in the same place which are these Adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance Flesh therefore and Fleshly Lusts in the Text is to be understood in such a sense as they are opposed to the nature and fruits of the Spirit And in Rom. 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Here the Life or Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is opposed to those works of the Flesh and to the caressing and providing for the satisfactions thereof And indeed if we examine either our own lives or others it is manifest that our care and forecast is pitch'd upon some one thing that is the leading Object to all our Affections In this sense therefore so to indulge to the desires of the Flesh as to make the Satisfactions of the Carnal Life the Joy and Contentment of our Souls to make it the thing we long after and would be at either alwayes or as repeatedly as we can find our selves reap the pleasures of such repetitions this is truly and properly to follow not to abstain from Fleshly Lusts. But to keep at a due distance from all Animal pleasures not to resent them nor rellish them with too high a gusto or penetrating delight not to let these poysonous waters enter even into our Souls as the Psalmist complains of the Waters of Affliction nor yet our Souls to cleave to the dust but for our Perceptive part to tamper with these things with a more suspensive or collective guard upon it self not loosening it self nor letting it self flow or melt into that which allures so strongly and would captivate her will and affections into a base servitude to things beneath her but to admit only so much of them as either tend to or are consistent with the health and sanity of both Soul and Body Thus to order our Appetite were properly to abstain from Fleshly Lusts and to content our selves only with the fulfilling our harmless and natural desires with which the Apostle has no quarrel In brief therefore our Natural Desires then become Fleshly Lusts when their rellish is so high that they either extinguish or obscure our Capacities of those Holy and Divine Joys or exceed the end and scope of God and Nature in planting them in us which was not for any mischief to either Soul or Body but for the good of both if Men were but either skilful or docible to learn the right uses and ends of them Edo ut vivam non ut edam vivo was the Saying of an old Philosopher somewhere Socrates I think Whereby he intimated the true end of Eating and Drinking and perstringed the ignorance and enormity of Gluttons and Drunkards The Animal functions and delights of them are of so low an allay that when Men live to enjoy the exercise of these it is an extreme inordinacy of Life and all the Natural Desires and Pleasures become ipso facto Fleshly Lusts. For surely they must be very highly taken with those things that they take to be the very Ends of our living and without which Life would not be vital Which is such an unhinging of true Reason and Nature that that saying of Antisthenes will appear from hence to bear with it a more sober and remarkable sense then we may be at first aware of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had rather be mad than struck with pleasure that is in such a sense as has been declared For to be transported with the pleasure of Natural Fruitions to that inordinacy is both a madness and a piece of Immorality besides and haply such as does more deeply wound the Soul than Natural Madness it self and lay more certain trains of her future Misery To abstain therefore from Fleshly Lusts is to resist or deny the inordinate cravings of our Natural Propensions or Desires and to held our Soul in suspence from being carried into too great a transport in but the measurable use of them that they should not pierce into the inward life of the Soul but let that Plant our Body rejoyce by it self if it can in its grateful refreshments Trees and Flowers flourish well enough supply'd with Rain and Sunshine without any such high transports And the chearfulness of a pure Mind and upright Conscience will be Sunshine enough to be added to the moderate irrigations of convenient nourishment due to this Plant-Animal we carry about with us That no Man may think it his duty to exult in the enjoyment of corporeal pleasures for the
signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a dismal darkness will there be then For the blind then leading the blind both will fall into the Infernal Pit THE meaning of the Text I conceive is now abundantly plain and that the scope and end of our Saviours uttering this Parable to his Disciples was to stir them up to a constant and earnest endeavour of utterly disentangling themselves from all the attractions of the relish of the Flesh or Spirit of the World and of joyning themselves entirely and cordially with and of dwelling wholly in the relish sense and life of the Spirit of God or of that Divine Spirit whose suggestions are no dictates of self-love or partial interest but the substantial concerns of the Kingdom of God and the good of the whole World For which he who has this Divine relish will not stick to lay down his Life if need require according to that endearing Example of our ever-blessed and adored Saviour Let it be therefore my task at this time to exhort you earnestly to endeavour after this great and indispensable attainment of this Single Eye this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of the Spirit which this Parable of our Saviour points to and is indeed the proper Spirit of Christ concerning which S. Paul expresly declares He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Which ought to be a rousing Argument to awaken us into a due sense of so great a want For unless we regain this Single Eye we shall never see the right way to Heaven There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus namely to such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death For the relish of the flesh or carnal-mindedness is death But the relish of the spirit or spiritual-mindedness is life and peace But the carnal mind is enmity against God because it cannot submit it self to the law of God but is in perpetual opposition against it ever suggesting what is contrary to it Wherefore we must wholly withdraw our selves out of that Principle as we hope to attain to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And assuredly whosoever has that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus it will free him and rid him from the power of all the urgings suggestions or subtil insinuations of that Law of the sinful flesh of self-love and self-interest Though he may feel these self-savouring suggestions and the more clearly discern them to be such by the perspicuity of the Single Eye the Spirit of Christ yet he is so freed from their power that he will never act according to them but constantly act according to the relish and suggestion of that pure Principle of the Spirit which has not the least tincture of self-love or carnal interest And there is a neceffity of perfectly clearing up at last into this Single-mindedness by reason of the war and enmity betwixt the Carnal Principle and this of the Spirit for without this there is no peace nor joy nor enjoyment in this Life nor in that which is to come The Law of the sinful life of the Flesh therefore is utterly to be abrogated nulled and annihilated and we are to judge and act in all things according to the discernments of that Single Eye or pure Principle of the Spirit of Christ. But I will rather confine the Arguments of my Exhortation to the Text and content my self with what it will afford namely the four Analogies I have produced and explained and so conclude 1. The light of the Body is the Eye What therefore the Eye is to the Body that is some vital and sensible leading Principle in the Soul to the Soul Is it not therefore of infinite consequence what this leading Principle is when it is of as much consequence to the Soul as the Eye is to the Body and the Soul of incomparably more worth than the Body What man would have the Eye of a Batt of an Owl or of a Mole for the guidance of his Body unless he were to have his abode under the Earth with the Mole or to venture abroad only in the Night with the Batt and Owl Every Animal is to have an Eye congenerous to its own Nature And therefore that Divine Animal which we call Man I mean the inward man the Soul is to have an Eye congenerous to hers she is to have this Single Spiritual Eye unless she will converse only with Brutes or Devils in their Kingdom of Darkness 2. Again The Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light that is it is a fit and faithful guide to it which way soever it goes And that is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus to the Soul Which assuredly is the Law of Divine love which is not the love of a mans self or any particular or partial Interest but the hearty love of God and a mans Neighbour that is of all mankind when with a single heart he wishes them and is ready to do them all the good they are capable of and himself in a capacity to administer to them This is that pure and lovely Eye of the Soul indeed which fills her full of Celestial light and enrolls her in the Book of Life and of the Children of Light This is that Vnction from the Holy one even from the Father of Lights whereby we know all things appertaining to Life and Godliness and that Iesus that stupendious Pattern of this Divine Love is the Lord and Christ And that that man of sin that exalts himself above all that is called God and supports his Power Pride and Pomp with gross Imposture and barbarous Bloodshed is that notorious Antichrist he that has this Single Eye easily discerns this and can hardly forbear to suspect that they that do not see it are blind through the Spirit of the World or else drunk with the steames of that Cup of abominations and see double This Simple and Unself-interested Spirit of Love is that Anointing of which S. Iohn saith that if it abide in us we need not that any man teach us but the same Anointing will teach us of all things and is truth and is no lie It is very Truth substantial and essential without any shadow of vanity or imposture in it and such as will seal our hearts with an eternal adhesion to our ever-blessed Saviour as being the communication of his own Spirit to us and be evermore a safe guide to us in our passage thorough this present life He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Wherefore as we tender our safe conduct through the wilderness of this World through all the dangers and perils of so difficult a journey we must earnestly endeavour the recovering of this Single-mindedness this amiable Eye of the pure love
in the Law of God even the written Word that no Heathen durst venture to intersert any pieces of it into their Writings So Holy it was accounted that they durst not contaminate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their profane mouths as Iosephus writes from the testimony of Hecataeus Demetrius in the same Historian reports that one Theopompus grew distracted by being too bold and busie with these Writings And that Theodectes the Tragaedian lost his sight And no wonder for by Iosephus's relation these men sought rather for Flowers to adorn their Works than for wholesome Instructions to reform their Lives Theodectes it's likely spyed somewhat there that would grande sonare that would sound gravely and make a majestick noise fitting his Tragick buskin but the man had little mind to set his feet in those Lawes of God to do them And hence so much distraction phrensie and blindness possesseth us this very day Yet like bold impudent Flies we sieze confidently upon those precious Oyntment-pots of the Apothecary and in this plenty of wholesome refreshment have Wings and Feet clung together and lose our Life even in the very Book of Life Prov. 25. If thou hast found honey eat so much as is sufficient for thee That is as much as thou canst well digest into practice For so it is with the Word as it is with Meat Not taken it doth no good Taken in and not digested it brings but Diseases But taken in and perfectly digested by honest labour and exercise preserveth Life and Health 4. But these Considerations are more proper to the Fourth and last Reason why we should be Doers of the Word Which hath reference to us and is the Reward of keeping his Commandments By them is thy servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward Psal. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Threefold great Reward A reward in Estate a reward in Body and a reward in Soul 1. A reward in Estate Blessed shalt thou be in thy basket and in thy dough Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle and the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep Deut. 28. But if we think Moses word not sufficient Christ himself will put in security for supply of all necessaries if we take but the condition of Obedience Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. So the Psalmist The lyons rore and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good There are manifold Testimonies in Scripture to this purpose and so obvious that quotation is needless 2. The second reward is in a mans Body for Strength Health and Beauty Fear the Lord and depart from evil so health shall be to thy navel and marrow unto thy bones Prov. 3. Envy Anger Hatred and discontented Melancholly which reign in either proud or pusillanimous Souls weaken Nature and destroy the Body but Life and Vigour is in the perfect Law of Charity A chearful Conscience purifies and refines the Blood but disobeying the inward Light is the choaking of the Vital Spirits A sound heart is the life of the flesh saith Solomon but envy is the rottenness of the bones This for Health and Strength Now for Beauty The wisdom of a man doth make his face to shine Ecclesiastes 8. and Ecclesiasticus 25. The wickedness of a woman changeth her face and maketh her countenance black as a sack The heart of a man changeth his countenance saith the Wise Man whether it be in good or evil So if there be a continual vigorous habit in the heart of shining Vertue and lovely Charity it will issue even into the face of a man in all friendly amiableness Moses was so fill'd with this Heavenly Beauty that the Children of Israel could not look upon him for his glorious splendour But the works of darkness make the spirit of a man to set in gloomy obscurity and deadness 3. But now we come to the third reward which is in the Soul Psal. 19. 7. The law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint the word which the Platonists use For the clear understanding of the dignity of this Conversion we are to take notice of the nature thereof Conversion therefore includes two things a leaving and a making toward somewhat And here in this Christian Conversion that which is to be left is the Creature and that which is to be turned unto is God The leaving of the Creature is the forsaking of whatsoever is not God but especially the renouncing of our own selves For while we cleave unto the Creature we most of all cleave unto our own selves for we adhere unto it for our own sake Self-love is the hinge or centre upon which we turn from God to the Creature and upon which we begin to circle from the Creature to God again But the accomplishment of Conversion breaks this thing abolisheth this centre and then we have our fixation in God and all our motion and operation of will and affection is upon him and from him That AEgyptian King as Herodotus reports in his Second Book when he had prohibited his Subjects sacrificing to God and had shut up all the Temple doors in AEgypt he presently employes all his people in his own Service and sets them to leed Stones to build Pyramids for his own Honour and the lasting Memorial of himself No man would be so mad as to forsake the Service of God to be a drudge to an inferiour Master But without question the plot is to be his own God and his own Master and to employ all his strength for himself But how the Law of God doth convert the Soul from this Idolatry and that which we falsely seek after how it brings us truly more near unto will be seen from the manner of this Conversion of the Soul to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Proclus in Plato's Theology The conversion of things to their causes or principles is to receive assimilating influence from them or to rise up and ascend nearer and nearer unto them and to become more and more like them To return therefore unto God is to become like to him by the recovery of the lost Image of Adam who was made according to the similitude of God Now the Image of God what it is seems not to be unknown even to the very Heathens The ancient Greek Poet brings in Vlysses musing with himself amongst his travels what a kind of People he had fallen among after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a kind of People be the Inhabitants of the Land into which I come Are they injurious barbarous and unjust Or are they of a loving disposition courteous unto strangers and of a Godlike mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Are they animo Dei formi Where the Poet plainly makes the form or image of God consist in Love in Righteousness or Iustice and Courteousnes they being contrary to Injury brutish Fierceness Cruelty and Injustice The Divine Philosopher speaks out more expresly though in fewer words To be like unto God is to be holy just and wise I might multiply words here for the setting forth of the manifold Benefits and Graces that accrue to the Soul of Man from his Conversion to God and Obedience to his Holy Word But nothing more can be said than this Image of Christ doth either express or at least imply Justice Holiness and Prudence comprize all Excellence That generous Magnanimity of mind that bears it self above all the contempt that can follow the practice of that which is Good or abstinence from that which is Evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pure Temperance Manly and awful-eyed Fortitude Gravity and Modesty gently moving in all peaceful and steady tranquillity and a God-like Vnderstanding watering with showers of Light this flourishing Paradise of Piety and Vertue This and whatsoever else we can conceive that Good is is contained in this Divine Image nay more than we can conceive before we be transformed into that likeness The Wisdom of him that is regenerate into this image and conformity with God dives into the depth of Darkness unties the knots of that Old Serpents train breaks off the bonds of Death and Hell pierceth like Lightning into the inwardness of things stands before the Throne of Immortal Glory That Holiness winds it self from all corruption of the Flesh flyes above the bewitching attraction of the Body looks upon God in unspotted purity That Iustice gives every thing it s own That which is Caesars to Caesar and that which is Gods to God But nothing to it self seeketh nothing for it self exulteth not in it self But gives all to God seeks all for God rejoyceth alwayes in God Thou art worthy O Lord to receive honour and glory and power for thou hast created all things and for thy wills sake they are and have been created Rev. 4. Thus be they nothing in their own eyes as indeed they are nothing but in profound Humility and Gratitude which is the most exquisite act of Iustice give all to the Eternal and Everlasting Majesty This is that lovely beautiful and most desirable Image of Christ the Son of the Father Who hath part here is an Inheritor of Eternity But he that by false and lazy imagination and phansie remains in the Devils deformed Nature his doom is everlasting Death and unspeakable Misery AND thus much for the Reasons Why we should be Doers of the Word I will only speak a word or two of the Proposition that is left and so end this Text. The Proposition is this III. That we are not to deceive our selves Errare falli decipi c. To err or be deceived saith Tully turpe est And that methinks should be a sufficient Argument to avoid it But to deceive ones self is a double fault He that deceives himself is both Fool and Knave as we say both the gull and the cheater the deceived and the deceiver Though to say the truth he that is deceived by another was first deceived by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same defective Principles that expose a man to be deceived of another exposeth him as well to be deceived of himself No man is discovered to be a fool by another but he was so in himself first And who made him so then But how can this be That man should be so wise as to circumvent himself and so foolish as to be circumvented by himself Certainly it implies more Natures than one in a Man The Platonists reckon up three in general there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. There is Vnderstanding that lamp of Heavenly Truths or Intellectual illumination 2. There is the Soul in the middle where Will and Reasoning is situated 3. In the last place there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Life which resides in the Body and is but a shadow of the Soul the darkened Cave of evil delusions falshood and deceit a den of all Serpentine Natures false Spectrums Magical Allurements thick Mists benumming Vapours execrable Whisperings vain Terrour false Delight bewitching Apparitions fair flitting Phantasms deceivable Suggestions besotting Attractions Here 's that damn'd cell where those three grand Impostors and Conspirators against the Soul plot their fraudulent mischiefs the Flesh the World the Devil Or rather here is a World of Devils in this Life of the Flesh where the Prince of Darkness rules Well hath Zoroastre described this place He calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a World whose light is the blackness of darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A World whose bottom is the depth of unfaithfulness It 's foundation is laid in Hell a Hell whose fense is pitchy clouds and thick darkness whose treasure is corruption inhabitants vanity and shadowes wisdom senslesness prudence precipitancy simplicity of heart inextricable labyrinths of deceit and hypocrisie constancy or steddiness a vertiginous circuit of glowing phrensie and gross madness He that here doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which those wise Oracles forbid He that looks down indangers his sight indangers being carryed away with this rapid course and hurrying flux of tumultuous motions It 's enough to turn his Brain to change his Understanding to bereave him of his right Senses Here 's the fountain of ignorance and well-spring of all evil deceits So long as the Soul leans toward this and its loving and liking is toward this shadow of falshood it carries its deceiver about with it self and no deceit there is without but it is from this first or in vertue of this That which the Platonists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture calls Spirit Soul and Flesh. This Flesh is that whorish Woman that Solomon speaks of so oft and describes her subtil carriage But all her fair speaking is but false allurement and her flattering utter destruction For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman a narrow pit saith the Wise Man Nay the high way to the very pit of Hell Her house are the wayes of hell whose descent is into the chambers of death Prov. 7. Now the Soul of man betwixt these two the Spirit and the Flesh Heaven and Hell God and the Devil is so placed that accordingly as it inclines or cleaves to so is its Wisdom and Life If it continually struggle to work it self upward toward God God will put out his merciful arm to draw it out of those Infernal Waters If it cleave unto the Flesh and its deceivable Lusts the warmth of wickedness will attract it down lower and lower till Satan hath insnared it in all his nests and hath chained it in his own chains So that being made an absolute Vassal of
good But we may have a kind of communicated Omnipotency as to the affairs of our own Sphere in our own Microcosm or little World where we ought to rule with an absolute hand and never to be quiet till we can profess with S. Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Wherefore as God is Omnipotent in the great Universe and does curb and keep up the whole Corporeal Creation within the limits of certain Natural Laws which they cannot pass So also we are to set bounds and limits to our Bodily Passions and keep them in constant subjection to the Laws of right Reason or to the Rule of the Spirit of God And again in the second place Though we cannot be Omniscient yet we may become in a manner entirely Intellectual and throughly understand and as affectionately relish the true interest of our own Souls and perfectly discern all the concerns thereof and be accompanied with all those Divine Truths and Blissfull Speculations which are requisite for the perfecting of Humane Happiness which in our Sphere is an imitation of the Divine Omnisciency And lastly Though it is impossible that any Creature should be infinitely good yet it is capable of being filled with a Spirit of unexpressible Benignity and to be a faithful well-willer to the happiness and prosperity of every Creature of God and therefore to be in a perpetual promptness and readiness to help them that are in any distress and to rejoyce in the good and wellfare of every parcel of the Creation And this is briefly the amiable Face or Image of God as it is visible or communicable to us which we see by the beams of its own brightness as we see the Sun by its own Light though not in that real lustre nor bigness that it is And I hope now it will plainly appear That the recuperation of this Divine Image is the true expergefaction or resuscitation of the Soul from a state of Sleep or Death into the most full and ample functions of Life Of which the first degree was self-motion or self-activity For meer passivity or to be moved or acted by another either without a mans will or against it this is the condition of such as are either dead or asleep as to go of a mans self is a Symptom of one alive or awake Wherefore whatever is done in us by meer Passion or Ignorance seems rather to be acted upon us than acted by us and to be a defect of that degree of Life which we call self-motion or self-activity in such cases we seeming rather to be carried by surprize than to go of our own accords as men that are dead drunk may be haled or disposed of where others please And every one that is acted by Passion is drunk or if acted upon through Ignorance asleep and so are deprived of that degree of Life which is self-activity a doing things from an inward or thorough assent to them Which no man does in a wicked action because every one that commits wickedness does it to his own infinite disinterest and wrong which no man did ever yet nor even can assent to Whence it is plain that he is not in this regard self-active and that therefore he is in the state of Death out of which the Image of God awakes him namely the power of Christ in him which shews him his way clearly that he may make a choice never to be repented of and enables him to walk in that way and to bear strongly and victoriously against all the assaults of the Body or suggestions of this Worldly Life And so by the self-activity of that spiritual or immaterial Principle in him he rules this little World of his by irresistible Laws as God himself does the great one And this I think is one considerable degree of the evigilation of the Soul through the Divine Image And the Second is no less considerable and which we have touched upon already in the former For if Ignorance be Sleep the Intellectual state of the Soul must needs be an eminent evigilation of her And if to grow Corporeal be to become more inert more unactive and drousie then surely to become more Spiritual must be joyned with a greater measure of Life and Activity And what actions are more Spiritual than those which the Soul exerts her self into in rational disquisitions and divine speculations and in the search of the most noble and momentous Truths concerning God and Nature When she unravels all into certain immutable and indelible Ideas of things which she was taught by no touch from external matter but are the most inward hidden Life of the Soul that Adytum or Oracle that speaks truth from the deepest recess of her Essence into which she cannot enter but by a lusty rowzing up and rubbing her Eyes clean of all those mists and fumes that arise from Corporeal Phantasms or accustomary prejudices These operations certainly must be very intellectual and incorporeal and therefore very much raised above the Body that Sepulchre or Dormitory of the Soul and not to be performed but by the excitation of such kind of Spirits as are in some measure congenerous to that Heavenly Body that Luminous or AEthereal Vehicle in which the Soul shall ride as in her Triumphal Chariot at the general Appearance in the last day I say the closer and more noble intellectual Operations of the Soul are not to be performed but by the assistance of more tenuious and fiery Spirits whence the Oracles call the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentem igneam which are contrary to that phlegmatick sluggishness and drownedness that the Worldly and Carnally-minded are overflown with But besides that the Principle from whence these Intellectual actions flow argues a notorious excitation or expergefaction of the mind therein that which is Intellectual being plainly Divine or Godlike whom the Schools rightly define to be Actus purissimus pure Life and Essential Energy That the Soul in her Intellectual Operations is roused as it were out of a Sleep will farther appear if we compare the functions of the Terrestrial Life with those of the Intellectual The largest Operation of the former of which is that of our Eye which takes in but this Visible Hemisphere of the World and if it could take in the whole according to this contracted proportion it were a pitiful scant thing such as is infinitely lesser than what our Understanding conceives the Universe to be nay many thousand times less than the Earth which is but as a Mathematical point in comparison of the body of the World How contracted then is Touch and Taste and the other Senses For the love of which when the Soul is immersed into the Body and wholly given up to them it is plain that her functions of Life are infinitely contracted and that she lies asleep or dead to her largest Faculties and that therefore the excitation of them is her expergefaction into infinitely a more ample Sphere
in and drown the Soul and choak all Life of Vertue and Goodness This is that great Deity of the Heaten This is the Idol of the Daughters of Moab whose stay and confidence is in this visible World whose joy and pleasure is in the Life of the Flesh. I will conclude with the Conclusion of the Psalmist Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the Heathen to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. DISCOURSE XV. COL iii. 1. If you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God THIS Text contains in it that precious mystery of the internal or inward Resurrection of Christ in our Hearts or Souls which is the chief if not only saving Knowledge of that part of our Christian Religion For alas Beloved what will that outward Resurrection of our Saviour according to the flesh profit us though we have the History of it never so accurately nay though we had seen it with our own eyes We may lye in the grave of sin our selves for all that We may sink like a dead stone into the bottomless pit and have our portion with the damned Devils who have an Historical Faith of all the passages of Christs doings or sufferings here on Earth it may be better than our selves And those wicked Souldiers that watched his Sepulchre were perfectly convinced that he had escaped the jawes of Death But what was this to them who were yet dead in their trespasses and sins Surely nothing at all And as little is it to us Beloved if we be dead in sin and have not risen from the strong holding bands of iniquity and vanity Wherefore it is not enough to say Christ dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification and so to imagine his Resurrection to be our raising from wickedness and corruption But we our selves also really and in truth are to rise from the grave of sin by the power of the enlivening Spirit of Jesus Christ. And whether we be thus risen indeed or no this present Text of Scripture will teach us If you be risen with Christ seek those things or you do seek those things which are above For the Greek Text will bear both senses I will first briefly run through the Sense of the words and then raise such Doctrines and Uses as shall most naturally flow from the Text and shall be most profitable for the promotion of that main work of our Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If then you be risen with Christ That is If you be risen in your Souls as Christ in Body rose from the grave If your Souls have scaped the bands of the Spiritual Death which is the nature and life of Sin for that maketh us truly dead unto Righteousness and unto God as Christs Body broke from the Prison of the Sepulchre Then you seek those things that are above It must needs be understood of the Resurrection of the Soul from Sin because the Apostle did not Preach to dead men departed this Life once and again clothed with this Fleshly Tabernacle but to men who were alwayes alive from their first being born into this visible World In vain then had he taught them a sign of that which he knew would never come to pass till the Colossians were past his Preaching to to wit at the last day the time of the Resurrection of our Bodies And according to this manner doth the Apostle speak also of the Crucifixion of Christ making the outward Passion and Death of Christ a sign or resemblance of something in our Souls viz. our dying to Sin as here he hath made his Resurrection an emblem of our rising to Righteousness Rom. 6. 2 c.. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know you not that all we that have been baptised into Iesus Christ have been baptised into his death We are buried then with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life For if we be grafted with him into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin The Apostle there plainly compares our dying to Sin to the Crucifixion of our Saviour and that as he dyed on the Cross Corporally so we ought to crucifie the body of Sin in us by the power of God in our Spirits Thus have we good warrant from the example of the Apostle to look upon the Mystery of Christianity with Spiritual eyes The Birth the Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Bodily have their similitude Spiritually in our Souls The Birth of Christ a resemblance of Christs being born in us Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travail in the birth again till Christ be formed in you His Death of our dying to Sin as I have already declared Or of Christs being dead in us For we are also said to crucifie Christ by our ungodliness and by extinguishing his Spirit of power and illumination in us Heb. 6. 4. For it is impossible that they which were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come If they fall away that they should be renewed by repentance seeing they have crucified again to themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame Crucified again For verily Beloved from our very youth up we have laid dead the Son of God the suggestions of the Holy Life in our Consciences But yet it pleaseth God to raise his Son in us and recover him to Life by the Preaching of the powerful Messengers of God and the secret working of his Holy Spirit upon the Heart And here is Christ risen as it were from the grave But if we by loose and negligent courses destroy this Life of Christ in us and extinguish the Spirit of God in our Souls then do we crucifie the Son of God afresh and shame the profession of Regeneration and the Spirit of God and the true and living Christianism by our open revolting from the living God and taking part with the wicked of this World and their ungodly and sensual courses But now as Christ is thus in a Spiritual manner killed and crucified so when he is in us restor'd to Life it must needs be fittingly termed his Resurrection from Death And according to this sense may those words of my Text be understood also If you be risen with Christ That is If your Souls have become living
open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Rev. 3. 20. See how friendly and familiarly they are entertained by Christ as if they feasted one another at a mutual Collation I will delight my self by the possession and actuation of the Humane Nature by my Holy Spirit and they shall be delighted and transported by the comfortable and enravishing influence of my Divine Nature when they shall be filled with all the fulness of God Of such infinite consequence is it to attain to that Body which is the proper House of God or his Holy Temple that when he knocks and calls we may yield obedience to that voice in the Psalmist who prophesies of this Mystery Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in that the Lord of Hosts with all his glorious retinue may fill his own House For he is not there alone as it appear'd by that voice heard in the Temple of the Iews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by his residence in us replenisheth us with all Heavenly Graces We are strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of this Lord of Hosts unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness as the Apostle speaks And that is most eminently verify'd to us which occurs in S. Iohn Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world And as for being rooted in Love as S. Paul speaks in another place this glorious Lord of Hosts is also the God of Love For God is Love and he that abideth in Love abideth in God and God in him as touching Holy and Divine things This Heavenly Love has his abode in this AEthereal Tabernacle And as for Truth and Knowledge as S. Iohn witnesses where is it to be seen or heard but in this Lucid Temple of God While we are out of this condition we know but in part or rather quite miss the mark by the giddiness and distortedness of an unpurify'd mind we hear and understand but faintly and unsetledly like Thunder afar off but in this Holy Temple we do as it were distinctly from his own mouth receive the Living Oracles of God And briefly as for Truth this is that state wherein all Figures and Shadows do fly away This is that grand Mystery reserved more especially for these last approaching Ages and witnessed by a great Voice out of Heaven Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men Apoc. 21. 3. These are some few strictures or faint obscure strokes of the admirable and ineffable Happy Condition of the Travellers through the Valley of Baca when once they have arrived to their Journeys end and appear before the God of Gods in Sion DISCOURSE III. MAT. vi 22 23. The light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness THE Text seems to be a Syllogistical Parable The Argument is contained in those first words The light of the Body is the Eye From whence is this double Inference That if the Eye be single the whole Body is full of light But if the Eye be evil the whole Body is full of darkness with this Porisma or Corollary annexed to the latter Inference If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness That is It is wonderfully and unspeakably great The force of the Argument for the inferring the Conclusions is so conspicuous that it is altogether needless to say any thing toward the further clearing it And therefore we will only take notice of the Truths in several manifestly comprized in the Text. 1. The First whereof is That the Eye is the light of the Body 2. The Second That a Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light 3. The Third That an Evil Eye makes the whole Body full of darkness 4. The Fourth and Last That if the Eye it self be dark the Body is left in most wretched and miserable darkness such as the presence of no Light no not of the Sun it self can chase away Non radii solis nec lucida tela Diei Discutient These are the external Truths of the letter of the Parable But hitherto we do but lambere vitreum vas sed pultem non attingimus We must know therefore that every part of this Parable is but the Protasis of a Similitude and that all the skill will be to find out the true Apodosis in every particular And if our Judgment fail us not in the first we shall not easily mistake in the following parts of the Parable Wherein I mean in the First if we make out this Analogy viz. That as the Eye is to the Body so the Vnderstanding is to the Soul it would be neither inept in it self nor unsupported by very great Authorities Aristotle sayes expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may embolden us to make the Soul the Homologous term to the Body Which Galen does expresly as Grotius cites him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to this purpose several other Philosophers speak and not without truth though not so precisely accommodate to our purpose This Apodosis would be over-dry and Philosophical and such as will not reach that Diviner meaning of our Saviour This Analogy was obvious enough to the Natural man I mean the comparing the Intellectual or Rational faculty of the Soul with the Sight or Visive faculty in the Eye of the Body But having regard to our Saviours Discourse in this place it is plain he intends not so much that which the Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Homologous term to that of the Eye as what S. Paul stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not meer notion or perception but implies with it a savour and relish of what is perceived Get thee behind me Satan said Christ to Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because thou savourest not the things that be of God And the Apostle expresly mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In brief therefore respecting the scope of our Saviour as we shall see more clearly anon the Analogy must run thus 1. What the Eye is for enlightning the Body that is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this relish savour sense or sapience in this peculiar sense for the illuminating the Soul that is this being so or so minded or affected And this is the first Analogy hinted in this Parable 2. The 2d is That as the Single Eye enlightens thoroughly the Body so Single-mindedness does thoroughly illuminate the Soul And this is that great and important Arcanum of Life that this Parable affords us That that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 1. 12. that godly simplicity and sincerity is the Eye
such inestimable treasures of durable Wisdom before a fearful tryal hath been upon it Deut. 8. Thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee in the wilderness that he might afflict thee and humble thee that he might try thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the most secret penetrates of thy Heart might be laid open to discern whether thou wouldst keep the Commandments or no. Now if the Heart of a man be not right toward God nor endued with requisite previous dispositions if this great gift of God were confer'd upon them they would either Swine-like prefer dirt and mire before this precious Pearl and so quench the good Grace of God by Beastly Sensuality which God will not suffer he having taught Nature not prodigally to cast away any thing of hers that is good whose best things are not comparable to the meanest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of God Or else if they did affect and could retain this exceeding great Grace they would notwithstanding wax excessively proud Gellius in his Noctes Atticae tells us of a Grammarian disputing of Genders and Cases of Nouns tam arduis superciliis with his Eye-brows so highly display'd and with so grave a composure of Voice and Countenance as though he had been interpreting some dark weighty Prophesie out of the Sibylline Oracles Now if the taking in of such superficial Learning as this doth so swell and puff up vain man surely more solid Knowledge would burst him If we be naturally given to conceit highly of our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks so greatly to overvalue our selves for some small petty Notions how could we bear such a qualification of mind as that no sooner any obscurity or difficulty could appear in our Souls but the brightness of our Understanding would consume it as those thinner kind of Clouds vanish before the face of the Sun A third Inconvenience may be added to these There being no means so pregnant for the obtaining any end as a clear subtil quick Understanding a wicked man which makes Himself his End in all his actions besides this abuse he would make of Wisdom viz. that he might strut and take upon him with more confidence and be pointed at with an Hic est ille Demosthenes he might further abuse it for the obtaining of more mischievous and Divelish ends But be we assured that that Spirit that doth assert men into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God will not brook so unreasonable a bondage it self as to become vassal to the will of corrupt man So we see it strong enough from these inconveniences that the all-disposing power will not bestow this precious endowment upon unprepared persons 2. But here is another Argument that seems to strike deeper which is Incompossibility 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God For they are foolishness unto him Neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Platonist in the VI Book of his I. Ennead The Eye sees not the Sun unless it bear the image of the Sun in it nor could it receive that impression were it covered with dirt and filth So that it is plain that the necessary foundation of true Wisdom is unfeigned Righteousness and Pureness The Lights of Heaven were made on the fourth day Now it is observable saith that Learned Iew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the quaternary number is the first quadrate pariter par or equally equal the measure of Iustice and Equity And the Heavenly Light surely is begot in its holy quaternary as those Lights of Heaven on the fourth day But a further Illustration for this purpose might be gathered if we would further follow the explanation of this Symbol Which I am the bolder with because I make account it is no strange one it being Aristotles own expression of a good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homo quadratus sine culpa Now a Quadrate you know consisting of Right Angles is a very useful Instrument for taking the height depth length and breadth of bodies and all in vertue of a Right Angle which is nothing else but the demission of one streight Line upon another perpendicular so that it encline no way but stand exactly upright And there is an uprightness of heart and life resembled by this which is when a man enclines neither to the right hand nor to the left no less needful for the inabling us to comprehend with all Saints what is that spiritual breadth and length and depth and heigth as the Apostle speaks than that other is in Geometrical measurings So we see though in brief that both Ethicks Physicks and Mathematicks have conspired together for the establishing and confirming of this so wholesome and useful a Truth That clearness of Knowledge proceeds out of Purity of Life To descend to a more particular handling of this matter as to shew you how the purging of a mans Soul takes away those main impediments to truth of Knowledge as are Self-admiration doting upon that which we our selves conceive of before the apprehension of others Anger Envy Impatiency a pusillanimous over-estimation of others desire of Victory rather than of Truth blindness proceeding out of the love of Riches or Honour an heavy adhension of our minds to the sluggish inertness of Sense suffocation or smothering the active spark of Reason by Luxury and Intemperancy with many others which be general Impediments to whatsoever kind of Knowledge a man aimes at to descend I say to such particulars would ask more time than I am able to speak in or you have the patience to hear Wherefore I omit them and will only add this one Argument more to prove the Incompossibility of true Knowledge and Iniquity in one Subject And that is the Antipathy betwixt the Holy Spirit of Discipline and Unrighteousness What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness saith the Apostle and what communion hath light with darkness And what concord hath Christ with Belial There is such a mutual abhorrency in their Nature that they chace one another as the Night and Day about the Orb of the Earth the approach of one is the putting to flight of the other Wisdom cannot enter into a wicked heart nor dwell in a body that is subject unto sin For the Holy Spirit of Discipline fleeth from deceit and withdraweth himself from thoughts that are without understanding and is rebuked when wickedness cometh in By this time I hope it is sufficiently evicted That Piety is the only Key of true Knowledge And indeed I fear not but that all with one consent will confess it so they may have the interpretation of it and restrict it to that vvhich they call Saving Knovvledge vvhich they say simple ignorant Idiots are capable of Now what a conceit they frame out in their minds of Saving Knowledge I will not here discourse But if it be granted of all
He has no room for them I therefore leave him to disgorge himself They are too great for him though he phansies them too little And intùs existens prohibet extraneum He is too full of his own Supper So that he has no stomach nor appetite nor the least relish or conceiving of Christs Supper But whatever it is to him I will endeavour to raise some apprehension of it in us if I may by any means speak that which may prove profitable unto us There must be some near affinity and likeness betwixt that which is nourished and the nutriment it receiveth Mans Body cannot be fed with Stones or Metals but with Plants and Living Creatures their Flesh and Substance being near enough the Nature of our Bodies which are of the like nature with other Animals and Plants Our Souls I mean alwayes of the Regenerate or we our selves for 't is all one have our birth and being of the will of God Iohn 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God viz. of the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being to be repeated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And certainly the very depth or essential bottom and centre of the new Creature is the Divine Will a Will raised up in the Soul of man perfectly answerable to the Will of God though not so absolutely powerful This is the very new Birth and the new Creature This is Christ in us and we in him And he that is thus in Christ he is a new Creature He that is not thus never knew Christ unless according to the Flesh. When I say the Divine Will is the very inward Essence or Heart of the new Creature I mean not any desire toward God and his outward Service or to Knowledge of him and his works or the beautifying and adorning a mans Soul with Moral Vertues but a full and absolute Resignation of a mans self unto the Will of God our Desires not at all circuling into our selves For it is a sign then that they sprung from our selves But our Desire and Will being melted as it were into one Will with God and desiring nothing but for God and because God desires it and wills it Then shall not our Natural Will be the First mover in our desire of Knowledge or of Vertue or of Power or whatever is desirable but the Divine Will in us shall will all this for God as He is in man that is freely and without all Hypocrisie or Self-love This is the very Root of the new Birth This is the Divine Life And whatsoever is not of this is either but Natural or Devilish This is the new Creature the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Plant of Gods own planting whose will is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he exercise himself both day and night This is the Lamp of God the Eye of God fixt in the Soul of man that loaths all Objects represented to it that arise from the will of the Flesh or the false hypocritical suggestions of mans heart but has its whole lust and desire after the Will of God hungers and thirsts meerly after it This is that that turns away at our Prayers and Praises at our Fasts and Alms-deeds at our Censuring and Conferring at our Zeal and Devotion viz. as often as they are foul'd and beslutted with the filth of our own Wills and Self-ingagements either of temper of body or temporal projects This is that righteous man that hateth lying and before whom the wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame Prov. 13. We having therefore thus found out the Nature and Constitution of the New Creature the Regenerate Soul it is no wonder to us to find out the proper food of it The first Adam is of the Earth Earthly and therefore feeds of Earthly Food The second Adam viz. the new Creature is not of the Earth but of the free Heavenly Substance born of the Will of God and therefore he breaths no other Air sucks in no other Life or Food than the Free Will of God This is that that satisfies and this alone can satisfie And now we have found the Food of the Regenerate Soul it will not be hard to find out the Poyson If the Will of God be the Souls Sustenance then our own Will be it to us as sweet as it can be it is our Poyson and Destruction It is a Cup of deadly Wine of which by how much more deep every man drinks by so much more is he made stupid and sensless as concerning the Godly Life till he be even perfectly dead drunk and do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Phrase of Plotinus is lye in the very dirt These things are safelier felt then spoken However it will not be amiss a little by way of Analogy to open the nature of that Spiritual Food mentioned in the Text My meat is to do the will of him that sent me The Soul set on fire by the Will of God and become one Divine Flame must as our Natural Flame be kept alive by motion and agitation The Will of God is the Pabulum of this Flame but if it continue flaming it must act and move within at least and without as oft as occasion permits or requires otherwise it will be suffocate and extinct But we need not dwell so low as upon inanimates Let 's see what is Food in reference to that which has Life Health growth strength sweetness of taste and satisfying the stomach these belong to the Food of the Body Let 's see if we can find these in the Will of God in reference to the Regenerate Soul 1. Health Prov. 3. 7 8. Be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil i. e. think not that the lust desire and determination of thine own Carnal and unregenerate mind is the best but abstain from that which it longs after and fear thou God i. e. adhere to that which he has revealed to thee to be his Will fear to transgress his Law It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet the Law of God is no charm to cure the body but it must do it by making the Soul first healthful But to dispatch this Truth in a word What is the disease or languishment of the Soul but Sin What is Sin but velle contra ac Deus vult Wherefore He that wills as God wills so long as he continues so is safe from Sin the disease of the Soul This Diet-drink will not only keep the Regenerate Soul in health but even metamorphoze Satan himself into a Saint When as Self-will and the feeding on our own Desires will so decay the constitution and complexion of the soundest
conceive not that the Spirit of God writes in Lawyers lines a little in a great deal but a great deal in a little I could travel further in this seeming Digression upon the Apostles words and yet bring all home at the last but I will rather pull in the reins and put on strait to the place I left If then without Hearing at least in some sense or other no Faith without Faith no Calling upon God without Calling upon God no Salvation without Salvation from the Old Man and his deceitful Iust no Regeneration then surely it is very requisite that we give heed to the Word and hearken to it and dispose our selves aright for the receiving of it as the necessary Seed for our New Birth and Holy Regeneration According to this Analogy of calling the Word Seed the Auditors or Disciples of them that teach the Word are called Children as begotten of their Spiritual Parents by the effusion of this Seed of the Word So amongst the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sons of the wise men are as much as the Disciples or those that hear and are instructed of the wise men and so filii Prophetarum And accordingly S. Paul Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you Ep. to Philemon ver 10. I beseech thee for Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds But we commonly take this expression to be metaphorical and the truth of every thing we ground in Sense and make account there is no generation but of Natural Bodies which we may touch and see making thus the visible World the idea and paradigm of better Essences and like Epicureans or Saducees we make nothing of invisibles or at least not conceiving aright of them set them in the scale of Truth at least a staff lower But if we could conceive that the spirit or life of every thing is the thing and that we look upon to be but the tabernacle or husk of it or any wise the vehicle or receptacle of it and not the thing it self We might very easily conceive that this Regeneration is as true and real generation as is in visible Nature and there is as it were rather a succession of a new Lord in this outward fabrick of our Bodies than the old new-clad with superficial accidentary habits Can the fig-tree my brethren bring forth olives either a vine figs So can no fountain make salt water and sweet So new actions in transient evolution must have a new centre or bottom of Essence which is the heart of life which is the being of every living creature Now the evolved life of man consists in this in knowledge or apprehension of things and a lively sympathy and antipathy with them whereby he doth either desire or abhor from them And if all the knowledge of these things which he now is perswaded of together with desire and abhorrency sympathy and antipathy fear or hope of future matters the memory of things past the sense of things present were utterly taken from him where would he be Or how would he feel out himself or find out himself This would be but turning man to destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They would thus become a sleep a sleep that they sleep that descend into the chambers of darkness and whom God hath covered in the grave And in some sence those words of Iob are excellent O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave and keep me secret till thy wrath were past and wouldst give me time and remember me Thou shalt call me I shall answer thee thou lovest the work of thine own hands When this death is perfected in which there is no life but only a sense that we are utterly dead to all things then God makes a new man contrary to that of the Devils framing and inspires a new Life and a new Breath and loves this work of his own hands Thou turnest man to destruction again thou sayest return ye sons of men So then if this be destruction and death then must a new sense and apprehension of things new sympathy and antipathy new embracing and abhorrency be a new life a new generation a new creature Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature Old things are passed away behold all things are become new Here is plainly a new species to speak in the Language of Philosophy For to distinguish species by outward figure and colour befits Children rather and Painters than Men of Understanding and true Philosophers The true and real inward difference betwixt a Stone Plant Brute and Man is that the second exceeds the first by the spirit of Vegetation the third the second by Sensation and the fourth the third by Reason And that a Regenerate man differs intrinsecally from a Natural man is that his sympathy sense and knowledge is in the life of the Spirit of God and the others in the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. So then the life of evolution or transient action in our Souls being utterly other from the Natural mans surely the original or centre of life is now quite another And here is generation of life ab intimo as deep as understanding can conceive of or apprehension penetrate to If then this Seed of the Word be of such efficacy that it beget a man into a new species even into the beautiful Image of Christ and that hereby we be linked into such Noble Kindred as to have to our Fathers such as are the Sons of God by Regeneration being born of God first themselves and so begetting Children in Christ. Otherwise they fling but Seed as Gardeners and Husbandmen do and that that grows is nothing like him that casts it Moreover we our selves being able after full age in the strength of Christ to propagate the lovely Image of the Life of God surely it should be a sufficient incitement to receive the Word with as much eagerness as the dry womb of the Earth doth the refreshing Rain after a long drought 3. But as the Word is Seed to beget so it hinders not but that it may be nourishment for the conservation and increase of that which is brought forth 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby 1 Cor. 3. I could not speak unto you brethren as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ I gave you milk to drink and not meat for you were not yet able to bear it There 's Milk and Meat Iohn 6. And Iesus said unto them I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst There 's Bread and Drink But this was such Bread as the Pharisees ill Stomachs could not digest neither as yet can they Is not this Iesus the son of Ioseph whose father and mother we know How then saith he I came down from Heaven
be bold to call but a miserable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till that Third completing Vnite be added the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Divine Nature or Spirit of God This Doctrine of Regeneration is inculcated often enough in Scripture though not under this express name but it is strongly enough implyed in as many places as there is mention of being born of God For what is that but Regeneration or a Second Birth and how oft is that repeated in S. Iohns Writings Iohn 1. 12 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Chap. 3. 5. Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Regeneration is not a sleight tipping or colouring over with superficial qualities and habits but is from a substantial principle of Life that actuates the Soul as powerfully as the Soul doth the Body is the Souls true form or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Soul is the Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and form For what doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply but penetration and most intimate possession of the subject actuated or informed and power rule and command over the same to move it at pleasure And doth not the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word thus penetrate and possess the Souls of Godly men even as the subtle Light doth the Air of it self but a dark and forlorn body There is so perfect a correspondency between Generation and Regeneration that unless prejudice and Sophistical curiosity keep it off mans Reason would forwardly assent that the Christian Regeneration is no dry Metaphor but full Truth And that the Regenerate man is even as specifically distinct from the mere Natural man as the Natural man from brute Beasts We made it good even out of Aristotle that the Species or Essences of things are as Numbers c. The Ternarius is not made by taking from the Binarius but by adding another Unite thereunto Therefore a man though he have one Form already viz. the Natural Soul it hinders not but he may have also another the quickening Spirit of God I will add a little more force to the Conclusion by taking notice of the grounds of our specificating things and essentially distinguishing the one from the other that we may discover the like grounds for our conclusion What small and slight intimations from accidentary differences in Natural Bodies have cast the Earth Water and Air into so many distinct Species and that they cannot put on one anothers outward qualities without the generation of some inward substantial form A little difference in weight and colour must imply a several Specification in Silver and Gold and upon a little more occasion than colour and taste must a Pigeon and a Partridge be distinct Species Not that these things are false but that there is as true grounds to find a real Specifical difference betwixt a Natural man and a man Regenerate For if several colour figure and weight though they be something near akin to one another be a sufficient cause of surmisal that some inward essential form is within surely then when we see the Soul of man figured and covered over with new Thoughts of Mind new Knowledge new Desires it is as good an Argument that it is actuated by a new Principle of Life But here it will be replyed Then any Chast man will Specifically differ from an Unchast man Just men from Unjust Philosophers from Idiots But it is not such an opposition as it seems at first sight The improvement of Nature is no sign of a new Specification A Horse that can go may also trot gallop pace swim and dance too and yet not cease to be an Horse But if I should see him flying in the Air I should take him to be no Horse but a Devil A Nightingal may vary with her voice into a multitude of interchangeable Notes and various Musical falls and risings and yet be but a Nightingal no Chorister But should she but sing one Hymn or Hallelujah I should deem her no Bird but an Angel So the highest improvement of Natural Knowledge or mere Morality will argue us no more than the Sons of Men But to be of one will completely with God will make us or doth argue us to be the Sons of God Stones Dirt Metals Minerals distinct enough one from another agree in tending downwards to the Earth and Fire is as much determinate to moving upward to the Natural Seat of that Element But if that either of them or Fiery or Earthy nature move of its pleasure upward downward to the right to the left this way and the other way even as it will no man any longer will suppose it either Fire or Earth but something else Specificated by a new internal principle To be always bent down to the desire of the body and worldly delights that motion is Bestial To be always reaching at high things that 's Diabolical To be disengag'd from a mans self and stand indifferent to what ere the Will of God is that 's Angelical or Divine But it is again objected If Regeneration imply a real new Generation that then it must also imply a real Corruption so that the Natural Soul shall be destroyed or at least Natural Knowledge Natural Principles of Reason Not a jot of this follows Neither the Soul it self nor its Natural Principles of Knowledge or Reason are destroyed or abated but made up and perfected Doth one Unite added to two pre-existent Unites destroy those Unites Or rather do they not all put together beget a new Number of another Species and Name Or to bring it more home doth the Soul of man coming into the organiz'd Body destroy the Body Or doth it not rather perfect and compleat it So doth also the Spirit of God coming into the Soul But as for the pre-existent qualities no more of those are destroy'd than are incompatible with the residence of that new Form the Divine Spirit Disobedience and wickedness be the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with this new Birth Reason is no more incompatible with this state than phansie memory hearing seeing smelling c. Nor the improvement of Reason or Arts and Sciences then looking upon the Stars through a Galilaeos Glass or reading the Bible with an ordinary pair of Spectacles Doct. II. That the Soul is Regenerated of no corruptible Seed but incorruptible There needs no Descant upon this no Interpretation the Words are so clear no Proof the Truth is so unquestionable Doct. III. That this incorruptible Seed is the Word of God The Word of God has two or three Senses It signifies The written Word The Word spoken and Verbum mentis That which God conceives within himself
this Resurrection of the Soul is I will also endeavour to satisfie you in that too but very briefly It is the inward Life of Righteousness it is the renewing of the Soul the shaping of it again into the image and similitude of God in a word it is the Life or Spirit of Christ whereby a mans Soul is alive to all Spiritual and Heavenly things I will explain it by a comparison When a mans Natural Life is gone all his imaginations and machinations perish He desires not any thing belonging to this Natural Life nor Food nor Clothing he feels not though his Body be rent or cut or rot away goes not about to preserve or recover the Health or Life of his dead Body thinks not of Wife nor Children nor any Natural thing else But when a man is alive according to Nature he desires Food Meat and Drink for the preservation of his Natural Life Cloths both for shelter and ornament is sensible of what hurts his living Body provides for his Health and Strength is active in the deeds of Nature and if he be a mere Natural man all his joy pleasure and content is in the same Just thus it is Beloved in the Death and Life of the Soul While the Soul is dead Spiritually it hath no true desire to the Word of God which is the Food of the Soul but doth come to the Church only for fashion sake gives no ear to the Voice of God rebuking her in her Conscience hath no unfeigned thirst after Righteousness nor is she sensible of the violent heat of Passion how wicked it is nor feels her self frozen and stark cold to all Charity and due Devotion she goes not about to obtain that saving Health even Jesus Christ that precious Balsam of the Soul nor is she a whit moved whatever mischief betides him But when the Soul hath risen from this Death and hath got the new Life of Christ being enquickened by his Spirit Then hath she a right healthful appeal to that Heavenly Bread and those Spiritual Waters those Refreshments from above the sweet Comforts of the Holy Ghost Then doth she heartily abhor all filth of Sin and keeps her Affections unspotted before her Lord and Husband Jesus Christ clothed in fine Linnen pure and white which is the Righteousness of the Saints Then is the living Law of God to her sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb so delightful and pleasant that she meditates thereon day and night She is very sensible of whatsoever is disgraceful to Christ or wounds or hurts his precious Body in any thing very tenderly loves the Communion of Saints and hath a very forward desire to propagate and enlarge the true and living Church of God She never falls by any infirmity or surprisal but is grieved and hurt as the Natural man is vexed when his Body chanceth to fall upon stones and is bruised Beloved where there is Life there is also Sense and where there in Sense there is also Grief and Joy Grief at such things as are contrary or destructive of the Life and Joy at such things as are agreeable and healthful for the same BY this time I hope you are sufficiently instructed concerning the Spiritual Resurrection both that it is and what it is Let us now make some Vses of this Doctrine That there is a Spiritual Resurrection belonging to every true Christian. 1. Then it is plain from hence That every Christian be he what he will that hath been made partaker of this Resurrection was once dead himself For as rising presupposeth a being down first so doth also a rising from death or being quickened presuppose a being dead Hence therefore it is plain That every Christian man or if you will even every man or was once or is at this present Spiritually dead Now the Nature of Death you know is such that nothing that is held therewith nothing that is Dead can recover it self to Life As it is also said in the Book of Psalms No man hath quickened his own Soul Wherefore Beloved this is the proper Vse we can make of this Consideration That if we find the fruits of the Resurrection of Christ Spiritually in our Souls we give God alone the Glory For it is he alone that killeth and maketh alive that leadeth down to Hell and bringeth up again He it is that is the death of deaths and a mighty destruction to the destroyer He it is that is the Resurrection and the Life as he himself witnesseth of himself He it is I mean the Spirit of Christ in us that fights against all the powers of Death and Darkness in our Souls and triumpheth gloriously over his and our enemies He is the strong arm of Salvation from God He hath wrought all our works in us Therefore not to us but unto God be the praise for his mercy and truths sake Nor only are we to praise God but also to live humbly and meekly before our Neighbour For thou whoever thou art that presumest thou hast attained to the Resurrection or enquickening or enlivening of the Spirit of Christ If hereby thou contemnest thy sinful Brother and settest him at nought and art not mercifully and kindly affected toward all men acknowledging very sensibly and inwardly that wherewith thou conceivest thy self to excel others or to be distinguished from them to be the Grace of God and his free work Thou art a lyar and a deceiver and jugglest with God and thine own Soul and art vainly puffed up in thy Carnal Mind For where Pride is there is not the saving Spirit of Christ where harshness of Mind is and contempt of our Neighbour there abides not the Love of God 2. If men be dead till they partake of the Resurrection of Christ then such neither can nor ought to take upon them any office of the living Who will make a Blind man judge of Colours or a Sick man of Tasts or a Deaf man of Musick But he that is Dead is worse than Sick or Blind or Deaf Wherefore no man that is devoid of the Resurrectiod of Christ in the Spirit is fit to judge in Spiritual things or in the secret Mysteries of God It is the Spiritual man that judgeth all the Heavenly man the Lord from Heaven and yet with man upon Earth the true Emanuel God with us and in us by his Spirit the true Judge of the Quick and the Dead As it is written The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord from heaven As is the earthly such are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly Wherefore Beloved judge nothing before the time that is till the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus till his glorious appearing from Heaven when he shall make every work of man manifest and shall judge with right judgment 3. I will only add an Vse of Examination and so conclude Is there such a State of the Soul belonging to every