as it were the Midwife of the Old Testament to open its Womb and bring the Messias into the World Howsoever at the least it is plain that the Old Testament brought him to his birth though it had not strength to bring forth and the Prophets as Moses from Mount Nebo came to a view of this Land of Canaan For the very first words of the New Testament being as it it were to fill up what only was wanting in the Old are the Book and History of his generations and birth Matth. i. You would yet be better able to prize the excellency of this Work and reach the pitch of this days rejoycing if you would learn how the very Heathen flutter'd about this light what shift they made to get some inkling of this Incarnation before-hand how the Sibyls Heathen Women and Virgil and other Heathen Poets in their writings before Christ's time let fall many passages which plainly referred and belonged to this Incarnation of God It is fine sport to see in our Authors how the Devil with his famous Oracles and Prophets foreseeing by his skill in the Scripture that Christ was near his birth did droop upon it and hang the wing did sensibly decay in his courage began to breath thick and speak imperfectly and sometimes as men in the extremity of a Feaver distractedly wildly without any coherence and scarce sense and how at last about the birth of Christ he plainly gave up the ghost and left his Oracular Prophets as speechless as the Caves they dwelt in their last voice being that their gread god Pan i. e. The Devil was dead and so both his Kingdom and their Prophecies at an end as if Christ's coming had chased Lucifer out of the World and the powers of Hell were buried that minute when a Saviour was born And now by way of Use Can ye see the Devil put out of heart and ye not put forward to get the Field can you delay to make use of such an advantage as this can ye be so cruel to your selves as to shew any mercy on that now disarmed enemy will ye see God send his Son down into the Field to enter the Lists and lead up a Forlorn Troop against the Prince of this World and ye not follow at his Alarm will ye not accept of a conquest which Christ so lovingly offers you It is a most terrible exprobration in Hosea Chap. xi 3. look on it where God objects to Ephraim her not taking notice of his mercies her not seconding and making use of his loving deliverances which plainly adumbrates this deliverance by Christ's death as may appear by the first verse of the Chapter compared with the second of Mat. 14. Well saith God I taught Ephraim to go taking them by their arms but they knew not that I healed them I drew them with the cords of a man an admirable phrase with all those means that use to oblige one man to another with bands of love c. i. e. I used all means for the sustaining and strengthening of my people I put them in a course to be able to go and fight and overcome all the powers of darkness and put off the Devils yoke I sent my son amongst them for this purpose Vers 1. And all this I did by way of love as one friend is wont to do for another and yet they would not take notice of either the benefit or the donor nor think themselves beholding to me for this mercy And this is our case beloved If we do not second these and the like mercies of God bestowed on us if we do not improve them to our Souls health if we do not fasten on this Christ incarnate if we do not follow him with an expression of gratitude and reverence and stick close to him as both our Friend and Captain Finally if we do not endeavor and pray that this his incarnation may be seconded with an other that as once he was born in our flesh to justifie us so he may be also born spiritually in our Souls to sanctifie us For there is a spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mystical incarnation of Christ in every regenerate man where the Soul of Man is the Womb wherein Christ is conceived by the Holy Ghost The proof of which Doctrine shall entertain the remainder of this hour For this is the Emmanuel that most nearly concerns us God with us i. e. With our spirits or Christ begotten and brought forth in our hearts Of which briefly And that Christ is thus born in a regenerate mans soul if it were denied might directly appear by these two places of Scripture Gal. ii 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Again Ephes iii. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith c. Now that you may understand this Spiritual Incarnation of Christ the better we will compare it with his Real Incarnation in the Womb of the Virgin that so we may keep close to the business of the day and at once observe both his birth to the World and ours to Grace and so even possess Christ whilst we speak of him And first if we look on his Mother Mary we shall find her an entire pure Virgin only espoused to Joseph but before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost Matth. i. 18. And then the Soul of Man must be this Virgin Now there is a threefold Purity or Virginity of the Soul First An absolute one such as was found in Adam before his fall Secondly A respective of a Soul which like Mary hath not yet joyned or committed with the World to whom it is espoused which though it have its part of natural corruptions yet either for want of ability of age or occasion hath not yet broke forth into the common outrages of sin Thirdly A restored purity of a Soul formerly polluted but now cleansed by repentance The former kind of natural and absolute purity as it were to be wished for so is it not to be hoped and therefore is not to be imagined in the Virgin Mother or expected in the Virgin Soul The second purity we find in all regenerate infants who are at the same time outwardly initiated to the Church and inwardly to Christ or in those whom God hath called before they have engaged themselves in the courses of Actual heinous sins such are well disposed well brought up and to use our Saviours words Have so lived as not to be far from the Kingdom of God Such happily as Cornelius Acts x. 1. and such a Soul as this is the fittest Womb in which our Saviour delights to be incarnate where he may enter and dwell without either resistance or annoyance where he shall be received at the first knock and never be disordered or repulsed by any stench of the carcass or violence of the Body of sin The restared purity is a right Spirit renewed in the Soul
hath a near affinity with that of weighing and pondering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath no difference in found from that which signifies ponderavit whence the Shecle the known Hebrew word is deduced to note as the Psalmist saith that He that is wise will ponder things All the folly and Unchristian Sin comes from want of pondering and all the Christian Wisdom Piety Discipleship consists in the exercise of this faculty Whatsoever is said most honourably of Faith in Scripture that sets it out in such a grandeur as the greatest designer and author of all the high acts of Piety Heb. xi and as the Conqueror over the World 1 Joh. v. 4. is clearly upon this score as Faith is the Spiritual Wisdom or Prudence for so it is best defined and as by comparing and proportioning and weighing together the Promises or the Commands or the Terrours of the Gospel on one side with the Promises the Prescriptions and Terrours of the World on the other it pronounces that Hand-writing on the Wall against the latter of them the Mene tekel upharsin They are weighed in the balance and found most pitifully light in comparison of those which Christ hath to weigh against them and so the Kingdom the usurpt Supremacy that they have so long pretended to in the inconsiderate simple precipitous world is by a just judgment torn and departed from them Will you begin with the Promises and have but the patience a while to view the Scales and when you have set the Beam Even removed the carnal or secular prejudices which have so possessed most of us that we can never come to a right balancing of any thing the beam naturally enclines still as our customary wonts prepossessions will have it when I say you have set the beam impartially throw but into one scale the Promises of Christ those of his present of his future bliss of present Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entred into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. ii 9. prepared for them that love God and that at the very minute of loving him the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referring to the manna of old the Hebrew deduced from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praeparavit and therefore described by the Author of the Book of Wisdom according to that literal denotation of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread baked as it were and sent down ready from heaven to the true Israelite the gust of every Christian duty being so pleasurable and satisfactory to the palate as it were of our humane nature so consonant to every rational soul that it cannot practise or taste without being truly joyed and ravished with it and so that which was the Israelites feast the Quails and Manna being become the Christians every day ordinary diet you will allow that to be of some weight or consideration if there were nothing else but that present festival of a good conscience in the scale before you But when to that you have farther cast in the glory honor immortality which is on arrear for that Christian in another life that infinite inestimable weight of that glory laid before us as the reward of the Christian for his having been content that Christ should shew him the way to be happy here and blessed eternally And when that both present and future felicity is set off and heightned by the contrary by the indignation and anger and wrath that is the portion of the Atheistical fool and which nothing could have helped us to escape but this only Christian Sanctuary when the bliss of this Lazarus in Abrahams bosome is thus improved by the news of the scorching of the Dives in that place of torments and by all these together the scale thus laded on one side I shall then give the Devil leave to help you to what weight he can in the other scale be it his totum hoc all the riches and glory of the whole world and not only that thousandth part of the least point of the Map which is all thou canst aspire to in his service and what is it all but the bracteata felicitas in Seneca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Naz. A little fictitious felicity a little paultrey trash that nothing but the opinion of men hath made to differ from the most refuse stone or dirt in the Kennel the richest gems totally beholding to the simplicity and folly of men for their reputation and value in the World Besides these I presume the phansies expect to have liberty to throw in all the pleasures and joys the ravishments and transportations of all the Senses and truly that is soon done all the true joy that a whole age of carnality affords any man if you but take along with it as you cannot chuse but do in all conscience the satieties loathings and pangs that inseparably accompany it the Leaven as well as the Hony under which the pleasures of sin are thought to be prohibited Levit. ii 11. it will make but a pitiful addition in the scales so many pounds less than nothing is the utmost that can be affirmed of it and when you have fetcht out your last reserve all the painted air the only commodity behind that you have to throw into that scale the reputation and honor of a gallant vain-glorious sinner that some one fool or mad-man may seem to look on with some reverence you have then the utmost of the weight that that scale is capable of and the difference so vast betwixt them such an inconsiderable proportion of straw stubble to such whole Mines Rocks of Gold and Silver and precious Stones that no man that is but able to deal in plain numbers no need of Logarithms or Algebra can mistake in the judgment or think that there is any profit any advantage in gaining the whole world if accompanied with the least hazard or possibility of losing his own soul And therefore the running that adventure is the greatest idiotism the most deplorable woful simplicity in the World The same proportion would certainly be acknowledged in the second place betwixt the commands of Christ on one side high rational venerable commands that he that thinks not himself so strictly obliged to observe cannot yet but revere him that brought them into the World and deem them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Royal and a gallant Law whilst all the whole Volume or Code of the Law of the Members hath not one ingenuous dictate one tolerable rational proposal in it only a deal of savage drudgery to be performed to an impure tyrant sin and pain being of the same date in the world and the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying both and the more such burthens undergone the more mean submissions still behind no end of the tale of Brick to one that is once engaged under such Egyptian Kiln and Task-masters And for the terrors in the last place there are none but those of
once calcare terram colere tread on the earth with his feet and adore it with his heart So Socrates who by bringing in morality was a great refiner and pruner of barren Philosophy absolutely denying the Grecian Gods and thence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is yet brought in by Aristophanes worshipping the clouds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and by a more friendly Historian described addressing a sacrifice to Aesculapius being at the point of death So that in brief the Philosophers disliking the vulgar superstition went to School faith Clem. to the Persian Magi and of them learnt a more Scholastick Atheism The worship of those venerable Elements which because they were the beginnings out of which natural bodies were composed were by these naturalists admired and worshipped instead of the God of nature From which a man may plainly judg of the beginning and ground of the general Atheism of Philosophers that it was a superficial knowledge of Philosophy the sight of second causes and dwelling on them and being unable to go any higher For men by nature being inclined to acknowledge a Deity take that to be their God which is the highest in their sphere of knowledge or the supremum cognitum which they have attained to whereas if they had been studious or able by the dependence of causes to have proceeded beyond these Elements they might possibly nay certainly would have been reduced to piety and religion which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knowledge and worship of God but there were many hindrances which kept them groveling on the earth not able to ascend this ladder 1. They wanted that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aphrod on the Topicks speaks of that kindly familiar good temper or disposition of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the mind is able to find out and judge of truth they wanted that either natural harmony or spiritual concord of the powers of the soul by which it is able to reach those things which now in corrupt nature are only spiritually discerned For it is Clem. his Christian judgment of them that the Gentiles being but bastards not true born sons of God but Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel were therefore not able to look up toward the Light as 't is observed of the bastard-brood of Eagles or consequently to discern that inaccessible light till they were received into the Covenant and made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true proper Children of light A 2d hindrance was the grossness and earthyness of their fancy which was not able to conceive God to be any thing but a corporeous substance as Philoponus observes in Schol. on the books de animâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When we have a mind to betake our selves to divine speculation our fancy comes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raises such a tempest in us so many earthly meteors to clog and over-cloud the soul that it cannot but conceive the Deity under some bodily shape and this disorder of the fancy doth perpetually attend the soul even in the fairest weather in its greatest calm and serenity of affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Plato even when the soul is free from its ordinary distractions and hath provided it self most accurately for contemplation Philoponus in this place finding this inconvenience fetches a remedy out of Plotinus for this rarifying and purifying of the fancy and it is the study of the Mathematicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let young men be brought up in the study of the Mathematicks to some acquaintance with an incorporeous nature but how unprofitable a remedy this study of the Mathematicks was to the purpose of preparing the soul to a right conceit of God I doubt not but he himself afterwards found when he turned Christian and saw how far their Mathematical and Metaphysical abstractions fell below those purest Theological conceits of which only grace could make him capable So that in brief their understanding being fed by their fancies and both together fatned with corporeous phantasms as they encreased in natural knowledge grew more hardned in spiritual ignorance and as Clem saith of them were like birds cram'd in a Coop fed in darkness and nourished for death their gross conceits groping on in obscurity and furnishing them only with such opinions of God as should encrease both their ignorance and damnation That I be not too large and confused in this discourse let us pitch upon Aristotle one of the latest of the ancient Philosophers not above 340 years before Christ who therefore seeing the vanities and making use of the helps of all the Grecian learning may probably be judged to have as much knowledge of God as any Heathen and indeed the Colen Divines had such an opinion of his skill and expressions that way that in their Tract of Aristotle's Salvation they define him to be Christs Praecursor in Naturalibus as John Baptist was in gratuitis But in brief if we examine him we shall find him much otherwise as stupid in the affairs of 1. God 2. The soul 3. Happiness as any of his fellow Gentiles If the book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were his own legitimate work a man might guess that he saw something though he denied the particular providence of the Deity and that he acknowledged his omnipotence though he would not be so bold with him as to let him be busied in the producing of every particular sublunary effect The man might seem somewhat tender of God as if being but newly come acquainted with him he were afraid to put him to too much pains as judging it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. neither comely nor befitting the Majesty of a God to interest himself in every action upon earth It might seem a reverence and awe which made him provide the same course for God which he saw used in the Courts of Susa and Ecbatana where the King saith he lived invisible in his Palace and yet by his Officers as through prospectives and Otacousticks saw and heard all that was done in his Dominions But this book being not of the same complexion with the rest of his Philosophy is shrewdly guest to be a spurious issue of latter times entitled to Aristotle and translated by Apuleius but not owned by its brethren the rest of his books of Philosophy for even in the Metaphysicks where he is at his wisest he censures Zenophanes for a Clown for looking up to Heaven and affirming that there was one God there the cause of all things and rather then he will credit him he commends Parmenides for a subtle fellow who said nothing at all or I am sure to no purpose Concerning his knowledge of the soul 't is Philoponus his observation of him that he perswades only the more understanding laborious judicious sort to be his Auditors in that subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But dehorts men of meaner vulgar parts less
was utterly departed and therefore this thin measure of knowledge or judgment betwixt good and evil that was left them which my awe to Gods sincere love of his creature makes me hope and trust he bestowed on them for some other end then only to increase their condemnation to stand them in some stead in their lives to restrain and keep them in from being extreamly sinful This I say they horribly rejected and stopt their ears against that charmer in their own bosoms and would not hear that soft voice which God had still placed within them to upbraid their wayes and reprove their thoughts What a provocation this was of Gods justice what an incentive of his wrath may appear by that terrible promulgation of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai They despised the law in their hearts where God and nature whisper'd it in calmly insensibly and softly and therefore now it shall be thunder'd in their ears in words and those boisterous ones at which the whole mount quaked greatly Exod. xix 18. And in the 16. verse it must be usher'd with variety of dismal meteors upon the Mount and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people that was in the Camp trembled Thus upon their contempt and peevishness was this manuscript put in print this Privy Seal turned into a Proclamation and that a dreadful one bound and subscribed with a Cursed is he that continues not in every title of it to perform it Mean while the matter is not altered but only the dispensation of it That which till then had taught men in their hearts and had been explain'd from tradition from Father to Son Adam instructing Seth and Seth Enoch in all righteousness is now put into Tables that they may have eyes to see that would not have hearts to understand that the perverse may be convinced and that he that would not before see himself bound may find and read himself accursed And after all this yet is not the old law within them either cast away or cancel'd by the promulgation of the other for all the book is printed the old copy is kept in archivis though perhaps as it alwayes was neglected soil'd and moth-eaten and he shall be censured either for ambition or curiosity that shall ever be seen to enquire or look after it Still I say throughout all their wayes and arts and methods of rebellions it twing'd and prick't within as Gods judgments attended them without and as often as sword or plague wounded them made them acknowledge the justice of God that thus rewarded their perversness Nay you shall see it sometimes break out against them when perhaps the written law spake too softly for them to be understood Thus did Davids heart smite him when he had numbred the people though there was no direct commandment against mustering or enâ—olment yet his own conscience told him that he had done it either for distrust or for ostentation and that he had sinned against God in trusting and glorying in that arm of flesh or paid not the tribute appointed by God on that occasion To conclude this discourse of the Jews every rebellion and idolatry of theirs was a double breach of a double law the one in tables the other in their heart and could they have been freed from the killing letter of the one the wounding sense of the other would still have kept them bound as may appear in that business of crucifying Christ where no humane law-giver or magistrate went about to deter them from shedding his blood or denying his miracles yet many of their own hearts apprehended and violently buffetted and scourged and tormented them At one time when they are most resolved against him the whole Senate is suddenly pricked and convinced within and express it with a Surely this man doth many miracles John xi 48. At another time at the top and complement of the business Pilate is deterr'd from condemning and though the fear of the people made him valiant yet as if he contemn'd this voice of his conscience against his will with some reluctance he washes his hands when he would have been gladder to quench the fire in his heart which still burnt and vext him Lastly when Judas had betray'd and sold him and no man made huy and cry after him his conscience was his pursuer judge and executioner persecuted him out of the world haunted him would not suffer him to live whom otherwise the law of the Country would have reprived till a natural death had called for him Lastly even we Christians are not likely to clear our selves of this bill 't is much to be feared that if our own hearts are called to witness our Judge will need no farther Indictments 'T was an Heathen speech concerning this rule of our lives and actions that to study it hard to reform and repair all obliquities and defects in it and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set it up strong and firm as a pillar in our hearts was the part and office of a Philosopher and then afterwards to make use of it in our whole conversation this was the part of a vertuous man complete and absolute And how then will our contempt be aggravated if Christianity which Clemens calls spiritual Philosophy and is to be reckoned above all moral perfections hath yet wrought neither of these effects in us if we have continued so far from straightning or setting up or making use of this rule that we have not so much as ever enquired or mark't whether there be any such thing left within us or no Theodoret in his second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very passionate in the expression of this contempt of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light of truth shining in our understandings There be a sort of birds saith he that flie or move only in the night called from thence Night-birds and Night-ravens which are afraid of light as either an enemy to spy to assault or betray them but salute and court and make love to darkness as their only Queen and Mistress of their actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a creature sent on purpose to preserve them and these saith he deserve not to be child but pitied for nature at first appointed them this condition of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is their birth-right and inheritance and therefore no body will be angry with them for living on it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But for them who were made creatures of light and had it not been for their wilfulness had still continued light in the Lord who are altogether encompast and environed with light light of nature light of reason light of religion nay the most glorious asterism or conjunction of lights in the world the light of the Gospel to walk in for these men meerly out of perversness of wilful hearts to hate and abjure and defie this light to run out of the world almost for fear
distorted and defaced it once was light in the Lord almost an Angel of light it shone as the Sun in the Firmament in majesty and full brightness but is now only as the Moon pale and dim scarce able to do us any service unless it borrows some rays from the Sun of Righteousness The fall hath done somewhat with it I know not what to call it either much impaired it and diminisht its light in its essence or else much incumbred or opprest it in its operations as a candle under a vail or lanthorn which though it burn and shine as truly as on a candlestick yet doth not so much service in enlightning the room the soul within us is much changed either is not in its essence so perfect and active and bright as once it was or else being infused in a sufficient perfection is yet terribly overcast with a gloom and cloud of corruptions that it can scarce find any passage to get through and shew it self in our actions for the corruptible body presseth down the soul c. Wisd ix 15. And from this caution grow many lower branches whence we may gather some fruit as in the second place infinitely to humble our selves before God for the first sin of Adam which brought this darkness on our souls and account it not the meanest or slightest of our miseries that our whole nature is defiled and bruised and weakned to aggravate every circumstance and effect of that sin against thy self which has so liberaâ—ly afforded fâ—el to the flames of lust of rage and wild desire and thereby without Gods gracious mercy to the flames of Hell This is a most profitable point yet little thought on and therefore would deserve a whole Sermon to discuss to you 3. To observe and acknowledge the necessity of some brighter light then this of nature can afford us and with all the care and vigilancy of our hearts all the means that Scripture will lend us and at last with all the importunities and groans and violence of our souls to petition and sollicit and urge Gods illuminating spirit to break out and shine on us To undertake to interpret any antient Author requires say the Grammarians a man of deep and various knowledge because there may be some passage or other in that book which will refer to every sort of learning in the world whence 't is observed that the old Scholiasts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were most exquisit Scholars Thus certainly will not any ordinary skill serve turn to interpret and explain many dark sayings which were at first written in the book of our hearts but are now almost past reading only that omniscient Spirit that hath no shadow of ignorance the finger that first writ must be beseeched to read and point out the riddle We must make use of that rotten staffe of nature as far as its strength will bear and that very gingerly too never daring to lean or lay our whole weight upon it lest it either wound with its splinter or else break under us our help and stay and subsistence and trust must be in the Lord our eyes must wait on his inlightning Spirit and never lose a ray that falls from it Fourthly to clear up as much as we can and reinliven this light within us And that first By stirring up and blowing and so nourishing every spark we find within us The least particle of fire left in a coal may by pains be improved into a flame 't is held possible to restore or at least preserve for a time any thing that is not quite departed If thou findest but a spark of Religion in thee which saith A God is to be worship't care and â—edulity and the breath of prayers may in time by this inflame the whole man into a bright fire of Zeal towards God In brief whatever thou dost let not any the least atome of that fire which thou once feelest within thee ever go out quench not the weakest motion or inclination even of reason towards God or goodness how unpolish't soever this Diamond be yet if it do but glissen 't is too pretious to be cast away And then 2. By removing all hindrances or incumbrances that may any way weaken or oppress it and these you have learnt to be corrupt affections That democracy and croud and press and common people of the soul raises a tumult in every street within us that no voice of law or reason can be heard If you will but disgorge and purge the stomach which hath been thus long opprest if you will but remove this cloud of crudities then will the brain be able to send some rayes down to the heart which till then are sure to be caught up by the way anticipated and devoured For the naked simplicity of the soul the absence of all disordered passions is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aphrodiseus that kindly familiar good temper of the soul by which it is able to find out and judge of truth In brief if thou canst crop thy luxuriant passions if thou canst either expel or tame all the wild beasts within thee which are born to devour any thing which is weak or innocent then will that mild voice within thee in the cave take heart and shew it self In the mean time this hurry of thy senses drowns that reason and thou canst not hope to see as long as like old Tobit the dung and white film doth remain upon thine eyes If thou canst use any means to dissolve this dung of affections which an habit of sin hath baked within thee the scales will fall off from thine eyes and the blind Tobit shall be restored to his sight In brief do but fortifie thy reasonable soul against all the undermining and faction and violence of these sensual passions do but either depose or put to the sword that Atheistical Tyrant and Usurper as Iamblichus calls the affections do but set reason in the chair and hear and observe his dictates and thou hast disburthened thy self of a great company of weights and pressures thou wilt be able to look more like a man to hold thy head more couragiously and bend thy thoughts more resolutely toward Heaven and I shall expect and hope and pray and almost be confident that if thou dost perform sincerely what thy own soul prompts thee to Gods spirit is nigh at hand to perfect and crown and seal thee up to the day of redemption In the next place thou maist see thine own guilts the clearer call thy self to an account even of those things which thou thinkest thou art freest from that which the Apostle in this chapter and part of my discourse hath charged the Heathens with and if thou lookest narrowly I am afraid thou wilt spy thine own picture in that glass and find thy self in many things as arrant a Gentile as any of them For any sincere care of God or Religion how few of us are there that ever entertained so unpleasant