flatter themselves whilst they please that on one consideration or other they shall be the Objects only of their kindness if these men according to their Profession be obliged in conscience to execute whatever their Superiors shall command them no less than Abraham was to sacrifice his Son on the Command of God they hold their Lives at the Mercy and on the good Nature of these Superiors who are always safe out of the reach of Revenge It is marvellous that Mankind doth not agree to demolish this cursed Image or the Ascription of a Godlike Power unto men to require blind Obedience unto their Commands especially considering what effects it hath produced in the world All men know by whose Device it was first set up and erected by whom what means and unto what end it was confirmed and consecrated and at this day it is maintained by a Society of men of an uncertain Extract and Original like that of the Janizaries in the Turkish Empire their Rise being generally out of obscurity among the meanest and lowest of the People Such they are who by the Rules of their Education are taught to renounce all respect unto their Native Countreys and Alliances therein but so as to make them only the way and matter for the advancement of the interest of this new Society And this sort of men being nourished from their very first entrances into the conduct of the Society unto hopes and expectations of Wealth Honour Power Interest in the disposal of all publick Affairs of Mankind and the Regulation of the Consciences of men it is no wonder if with the utmost of their Arts and Industry they endeavour to set up and preserve this Image which they have erected from whence they expect all the advantage which they do design But hereof I may treat more fully when I come to speak of the Image of Jealousie it self SECT X. From these Generals I shall proceed unto more particular Instances and those for the most part in important Principles of Religion wherein Christian Faith and Practice are most concerned And I shall begin with that which is of signal Advantage unto the Framers of these Images as the other also are in their degree for by this craft they have their Livelihood and Wealth and most pernicious to the Souls of other men It is a Principle of Truth that such as wherein the whole course of Christian Obedience is concerned that there is a Spiritual defilement in Sin This the Scripture every where declares representing the very Nature of it by spiritual Uncleanness And this Vncleanness is its contrariety unto the Holiness of the Divine Nature as represented unto us in the Law This Defilement is in all men equally by Nature all are alike born in Sin and the pollution of it Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And it is in all personally in various degrees some are more polluted with actual Sins than others but all are so in their degree and measure This pollution of Sin must be purged and taken away before our entrance into Heaven for no unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdom of God Sin must be destroyed in its Nature Practice Power and Effects or we are not saved from it This Purification of Sin is wrought in us initially and gradually in this Life and accomplished in Death when the Spirits of just men are made perfect In a compliance with this work of Gods Grace towards them whereby they purifie themselves consists one principal part of the Obedience of Believers in this world and of the exercise of their Faith The principal internal immediate efficient cause of this purification of Sins is the Blood of Christ the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all our Sins 1 John 1.7 The Blood of Jesus purgeth our Consciences from dead works Heb. 9.14 He washeth us in his own Blood Rev. 1.5 And there is an external helping Cause thereof which is Trials and Afflictions made effectual by the Word and accomplished in Death But this way of purging Sins by the Blood of Christ is mysterious There is no discerning of its Glory but by spiritual Light no experience of its Power but by Faith Hence it is despised and neglected by the most that yet outwardly profess the Doctrine of the Gospel Men generally think there are a thousand better ways for the purging of Sin than this by the Blood of Christ which they cannot understand See Micah 6.6 7. It is Mysterious in the Application of it unto the Souls and Consciences of Believers by the Holy Ghost it is so in the Spring of its efficacy which is the Oblation of it for a Propitiation and in its relation unto the new Covenant which first it establisheth and then makes effectual unto this end The Work of it is gradual and unperceptible unto any thing but the eyes of Faith and diligent spiritual Experience Again It is so ordered by Divine Wisdom as strictly to require to begin excite and encourage the utmost diligence of Believers in a compliance with its efficacy unto the same End What Christ did for us he did without us without our aid or concurrence As God made us without our selves so Christ redeemed us but what he doth in us he doth also by us what he works in a way of Grace we work in a way of Duty And our Duty herein consists as in the continual exercise of all gracious Habits renewing changing and transforming the Soul into the Likeness of Christ for he which hopes to see him purifieth himself as he is pure so also in universal permanent uninterrupted Mortification unto the end whereof we shall speak afterwards This also renders the Work more Mysterious and difficult The improvement of Afflictions unto the same end is a principal part of the Wisdom of Faith without which they can be of no spiritual Use unto the Souls of men This Notion of the Defilement of Sin and that of the Necessity of its purification were retained in the Church of Rome for they could not be lost without not only a rejection of the Scripture but the stiffling of natural conceptions about them which are indelibly fixed in the Consciences of men But Spiritual Light into the Glory of the thing it self or the mystical Purification of Sin with an experience of the power and efficacy of the Blood of Christ as applied unto the Consciences of Believers unto that end by the holy Ghost were lost amongst them In vain shall we seek for any thing of this Nature either in their Doctrine or their Practice Wherefore having lost the Substance of this Truth and all experience of its Power to retain the Use of its Name they have made sundry little Images of it creeping things whereunto they ascribe the power of purging Sin such as Holy Water Pilgrimages Disciplines Masses and various commutations But they quickly found by experience that these things would neither purifie the Heart nor
his principal end is himself degenerated into a Beast The inferior and subordinate end is the good of the Communities the happiness and welfare of the whole Country the peace comfort and prosperitie of all the People over whom Governours are set The supreme Magistrate is to his Dominions what the Head is to the body natural and so influence belongs to him as well as preeminence he is engaged to think contrive study care order and provide for the comfort of the body and all the members of it Paul saith Rom. 13 4. He is the Minister of God to thee for good for a fourfold good as learned Partus saith 1. In bonum naturale for natural good that he may secure thy person and life from danger and thy outward Liberty comforts and enjoyments from the Sons of violence 2. In bonum morale for moral good that he may curb thy unruly passions and base lusts and restraine or hinder them from breaking out into vitious and enormous practices 3. In bonum civile for civil good that he may preserve publick Society and keep up common honesty and Justice 4. In bonum spirituale for spiritual good that he may defend the true Religion that which is pure and undefiled before God and the Father and keep up and encourage the Worship of God which is warranted by the Scripture And all this is according to the word which doth direct and command that we should pray for Kings and all that are in Authority that under them we might lead peaceable and quiet lives in all godliness and honesty So that the end of Government is the securing peace and quietness and the encouraging of honesty and godliness 2. In all Government there is supposed a power sufficient for the ordering of things unto these ends not only natural power but also moral Authority lawfully come by for without that there can be no just right and good Government Magistrates therefore are called Powers Rom. 13 1. Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained by God Lawful Governours are invested with Authority and Power there are put into their hands the Scepter to rule and the Sword to protect and punish as there is cause They have a legislative Power to make Laws and issue out commands which shall oblige their Subjects they have a right to do this so they use their power rightly and obedience is due from their People obedience to all their just and lawful commands they ought to rule in the fear of God and their Subjects ought to obey in the fear of God Rom. 13 5. Ye must needs be subject and that not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake as knowing that this is the will of God concerning you and when any wilfully fail herein they contract guilt and break their own peace And as there is an Authority to enact Laws so a Power to suppress the Rebellions and animadvert on those that are refractorie and stubborn and also to defend reward and encourage all persons studious and careful of performing their duty Where all this Power is not there is a miserable defect in the Government which will in time dwindle and come to nothing and confusion and every evil work step up in its place 3. In Government this Power is reduced into act there is a prudent seasonable exerting and putting forth of the Power in order to the attaining of these ends This is the complement of all for it is folly for any to make that his end which is quite out of his reach and that Power is in vain which always lyes dorment Power is not put into the Rulers hand meerly for ornament but for use It is no other than a trust committed to him therefore though he be a Magistrate over men yet he is a Minister of God and is obliged to serve his great Lord according to the best of his skill and to act toward the end formerly mentioned As he is advanced to high and honourable places so he is engaged to great and excellent work Rom. 13 4. He is not to bear the Sword in vain and it may be said He weareth not the Crown in vain he holdeth not the Scepter in vain not for nothing not for a meer shew an empty Pageantry but for a good end for excellent and noble purposes The Crown and Scepter are not so glorious as that for which he is advanced the Sword committed to him must be drawn against the enemies of God and truth and holiness he must be an Avenger to execute wrath not upon the pious and peaceable that would be an abuse of his Power but upon them that do evil Thus have I shewed you what Government is Viz Using of lawful Power for excellent ends The second thing propounded was to prove and evidence to you that God doth Govern the world As he made it at first so he doth still uphold and order it In a Nation you know there are many inferiour Magistrates and under-Officers yet it followeth not but the King is supreme who authorizeth influences directs and limits them by his Laws There are upon Earth many Governours various forms of Government yea the Angels in Heaven are ministring Spirits employed in special and weighty matters But all of them are set up and set forth by God and fulfil his pleasure God himself sits at the helm and steers the course he overrules and orders all from the highest to the lowest For the evidenceing hereof take these following particulars 1. First the light of nature hath discovered this and by the glimmering thereof though it burn dimly as a Candle in the Socket many among the Heathens have been led to the knowledg of it and constrained to acknowledg it It must be granted that they groped and were exceedingly in the dark differing much one from another in their Sentiments about the Deitie and his Providence Some plainly denyed a God some owned and asserted the being of a God but denyed the creating of the World but that it was from everlasting or rose up through a fortuitous concurse of atomes Some granted that the World was of God as of the first cause yet he did not see nor observe what is done in it among men Some held he doth indeed see all things that are and be done in the world but he is only an insignificant idle Spectator who minds and regards nothing Some were of opinion that God doth not attend to the meaner and inferiour Creatures nor take any cognizance of small inconsiderable matters but only superintended the affairs and concernments of mankind Doth God take care of Oxen Some did again assert that God did look after and care for all things yet he acted only in a way of common general influences and by second causes doing nothing immediately and by himself Others again on the contrary side did affirm that God doth immediately and by himself so work all
our principal perfections in Heaven and Earth These he recommends by the most affectionate and obliging the most warming melting Perswasives the superlative Love of God to us and our Communion with the Saints in Nature and Grace In the former Verse the Apostle argues for the reality of the effect as an evidence of the Cause Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ that is the Saviour of the world foretold to the Prophets and expresses the truth of that Faith in a sutable conversation is born of God and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Grace is not less powerful in producing tender reciprocal affections between the off-spring of the same heavenly Father than the subordinate endearments of Nature The pretence is vain of Love to God without loving his regenerate Children And in the Text he argues from the knowledge of the Cause to the discovering of the sincerity of the Effect By this we know that we love the Children of God with a holy affection if we love God and keep his Commandments There is but one difficulty to be removed that the force of the Apostles reasoning may appear 't is this a Medium to prove a thing must be of clearer evidence than what is concluded by it Now though a demonstration from the Cause be more noble and scientifical yet that which is drawn from the Effect is more near to Sence and more discernable And this is verified in the Instance before us for the Love of God who is absolutely spiritual in his Being and Excellencies doth not with that sensible fervour affect and passionately transport us as Love to his Children with whom we visibly converse and who are receptive of the most sensible testimonies of our Affection Accordingly the Apostle argues He that loves not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen As the Motives to love our Brethren from our conjunction in Nature and familiar Conversation are more capable to allure our Affections and more sensibly strike the Heart than the invisible Deity who is infinitely above us by the same reason we may more easily judge of the truth of our Love to them than of our Love to God To this the Answer is clear the Apostle doth not speak of the Love of God as a still silent contemplative affection confined to to the superior Faculty of the Soul but as a burning shining affection like Fire * Lumine qui semper proditur ipso suo active and declarative of it self in those effects that necessarily flow from it that is voluntary obedience to his Commands and thus it becomes manifest to the renewed Conscience and is a most convincing proof of the sincerity of our Love to the Saints The Text being cleared affords this Doctrine Doctrine The sincerity of our Love to the Children of God is certainly discovered by our Love to God and Obedience to his Commands For the Illustration and Proof of the Point I will briefly shew 1. Who are described by this Title the Children of God 2. What is included in our Love to them 3. What the Love of God is and the obedience that flows from it 4. How from love to God and willing obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our love to his Children To explain the first we must consider that this Title the Children of God is given upon several accounts 1. By Creation the Angels are called the Sons of God and Men his off-spring The reason of the Title is 1. The manner of their production by his immediate Power Thus he is stiled The Father of Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of the Flesh For though the conception and forming of the Body be the work of his secret Providence yet 't is by the hand of Nature the Parents concurring as the second Causes of it but the production of the Soul is to be entirely ascribed to his power without the intervention of any Creature 2. In their spiritual immortal Nature and the intellectual operations flowing from it there is an Image and resemblance of God from whence this Title is common to all reasonable Creatures and peculiar to them for though the Matter may be ordered and fashioned by the hand of God into a figure of admirable beauty yet 't is not capable of his likeness and image so that neither the Lights of Heaven nor the Beasts and plants of the Earth are called his Children II. By external Calling and Covenant some are denominated his Children for by this Evangelical Constitution God is pleased to receive Believers into a filial relation Indeed where there is not a cordial consent and subjection to the Terms of the Covenant visible Profession and the receiving the external Seals of it will be of no advantage but the publick serious owning of the Gâ—â—pel entitles a person to be of the Society of Christians and filius and foederatus are all one III. There is a Sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration that is the communicating a new nature to man whereby there is a holy and blessed change in the directive and commanding Faculties the Understanding and Will and in the Affections and consequently in the whole Life This is wrought by the efficacy of the Word and Spirit and is called by our Saviour Regeneration because it is not our original carnal Birth but a second and celestial 'T is with the new man in Grace as with an Infant in Nature that has the essential parts that compose a man a Soul endowed with all its faculties a Body with all its organs and parts but not in the vigor of mature age Thus renewed Holiness in a Christian is compleat and entire in its parts but not in perfection of degrees there is a universal inclination to all that is holy just and good and a universal aversion from sin though the executive power be not equal And regenerate Christians are truly called the Children of God for as in natural generation there is communicated a Principle of Life and sutable Operations from whence the Title and Relation of a Father arises so in Regeneration there are derived such holy and heavenly qualities to the Soul as constitute a Divine Nature in man whereby he is partaker of the Life and Likeness of God himself from hence he is a Child of God and has an interest and propriety in his Favour Power and Promises and all the good that flows from them and a Title to the eternal inheritance Secondly I will shew what is included in our Love to the Children of God 1 Pet. 1.22 1. The Principle of this Love is Divine The Soul is purified through the Spirit to unfeigned Love of the Brethren Naturally the Judgment is corrupted and the Will depraved that carnal respects either of Profit or Pleasure are the quick and sensible incitements of Love and till the Soul be cured of the sensual contagion the
understandings why all sorts of Persons are hankering after an earthly Happiness And now I shall speak largely in the third to what I little more than hinted in the second Proposition It is onely Serious Godliness that can any whit really abate the Vanity Prop. III that cleaves to every Condition Other things may like Topical Medicines as Playsters to the Wrists repell the Disease but while they do not remove the cause they cannot Cure it We may exchange one Vanity for another and the Novelty may please us for a while but when that is over the Vexation returns 'T is true God alone can cure us but what ever method he takes to do it whether of Indulgence or Severity 't is alwayes by framing the Heart and Life to Serious Godliness to hate Sin and love Holiness to live a Life of Faith in dependance upon God and resignation to him to live above the transports of hopes and fears about things temporal and to grow up in the Graces and Comforts of the Holy Ghost for things Eternal In short to be Blessings to the World while we live and to be Blessed with God when we dye this is the business and fruit of Serious Godliness And this alone is that which at present can effectually abate the vexatious Vanities which every Condition swarms with The wisest man in the World cannot tell what is good for man in this Life No man can tell what worldly Condition is better for him than that which is his present Condition Among the variety of things under the Sun which the Heart of man is apt to be drawn out unto neither he himself nor any other for him is able certainly to inform him which of all those 't is best for him to enjoy and to reap Comfort from Whether it be better for him to be rich or poor high or low in private retirement or in publick service Some mens greatness hath undone them they had never been so wicked had not their Wealth been fuel for their Lusts Achitophel might have lived longer had he not been so wise No man can tell whether that he snatcheth at with most greediness have not a hook under the Bait or be not tempered with Poyson Those that live by Rapine and Violence Prov. 1.18 They lay wait for their own blood they lurk privily for their own lives But you 'l say these are hot-headed Persons live extravagantly walk by no Rule don't take time to consider well turn your Eyes from these to those that are most accomplisht for humane wisdom and knowledge Rom. 1.22 Professing themselves to be Wise they became Fools drowning their some way right thô every way short Notions they had of God in unreasonable Idolatry You 'l say these were but Heathens and therefore no marvel if they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge 't is better with Christians Look next upon Christians and those of the highest Notions and form of Godliness on this side the Power of it 2 Pet. 2.18 19 21. While they speak great swelling words of Vanity about that they call Christian Liberty they themselves are the Servants of Corruption and it had been better for them never to have known the way of Righteousness than not to have walkt in it Well but for all this Job tells us of some of even the worst of men that account themselves so happy as if they needed nothing from God to better their Condition but he tells you withall in the same breath Job 21.15 16. Lo their good is not in their hand thô they think it is they have not their Fortune as they call it in their own power to retain it while they live and dispose of it when they dye God can overturn it when he pleaseth and will do it to their Sorrow whatever Persons may hope or fancy if they fear not God nor obey the Voice of his Servants thô they are not at present in trouble like other men Psal 73.5 c. but can speak loftily setting their mouth against the Heavens and their Tongue walketh through the Earth thô they compass themselves about with some sparks or blaze of Comfort Isa 50.10 11. yet this shall they have of Gods hand they shall lye down in Sorrow Now thus when every one is rummaging among heaps of Vanities that pretend to be good for man upon Earth will you accept of a Guide to direct you to what cannot but be good for you and that in every Condition that shall not only abate the Vanity but discover the Excellency that is in every Condition This will be most distinctly done by an induction of particulars and setting contrary Conditions one against another what may be said for and against each Condition and how Serious Godliness makes every Condition amiable Who knows whether Riches or Poverty be best for man in this Life I. For Riches I need say but little because most Persons are ready to say too much they seem to be the Cause without which there can be not so much as the fancying an earthly Happiness what pleasures or esteem can worldlings have without an Estate to feed them the Riches of the Mind are too Spiritual to be seen by carnal Eyes But when you consider these or such like inseparable attendants on a great Estate you will see the desirableness to shrink as the Vanity swells e. g. Some run out the greatest part of their Life before they can reach what they can call an Estate to say nothing of those that dye the Worlds Martyrs in the pursuit of that they never attain those that have got an Estate or have an Estate left 'em have ordinarily as great care and difficulty in keeping as they or others have had in the getting of it O the tiresome Dayes the restless Nights the broken Sleeps the wild Passions the fretting Disquiet of those troublesom occurrences which they cannot possibly prevent And when you come to speak of an Enjoyment to speak strictly they have nothing worth the Name of an Enjoyment which they may not have as well if not better without what they call an Estate Yet thô 't is thus while they have it they are not able to bear the parting with it the very thoughts of losing puts 'em into Heart-convulsions So that an Estate can neither be got nor kept nor lost without manifold Vanity and Vexation of Spirit Alas what remedy Serious Godliness carries a Gracious Person above all Heart-breaking Vexations of getting the World for his Thoughts are fill'd about getting something better about keeping for comparatively he cares for keeping nothing but Faith and a good Conscience about enjoying for he counts nothing on this side God worth the Name of an enjoyment And as for parting with the World he impartially considers that he can't have the possession of his Heavenly Inheritance till the World and he shake hands for ever So that there 's no room without the regret of Grace to edge in so much as
those terms for so it doth it is the scope and end of the Promise to secure Life and Glory to those that accept of it upon the terms propounded the Command directs in the way and the Promise makes over and conveys the blessing Believe and thou shalt be saved Act. 16.31 So Joh. 3.16 and Rom. 2.7 To them that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and Immortality Eternal life is promised Now the Word and Promise of God not only as revealing Life to us and the way to it but as conveying it is the ground of our Faith and Hope though without the Word we might have some more general Knowledge of a State of Happiness in the other World yet without the Word we cannot know the way to it nor ever attain to an Interest in it nor have so full certainty of the very being of it as by the Word we have the certainty of Faith being greater than that of any natural Knowledge whatever we have no ground at all to believe we shall be saved but what the Promise affords us And that is sufficient ground to build our Faith upon and a better we cannot have than the Word of him that is the Truth it self and so can neither deceive nor be deceived God that cannot lie hath promised Eternal life Tit. 1.2 Upon the Infallibility and Veracity of that God in his holy Word the Faith of a Christian rests and a surer Foundation for it cannot be imagined and need not be desired As the certainty of any assent of the Mind to a truth depends upon the strength and firmness of the Reason or Argument which moves to and procures that Assent and is the Cause of it so likewise the certainty of Faith proceeds from the goodness and validity of the Authority which is the Motive to and Reason of our believing or which is the same the ground of it If we believe a man that belief is more or less certain according as the Person on whose Authority our belief is grounded is more or less credible and so when we believe God our Faith is such as its Foundation is the Effect imitates the Cause the foundation of that Faith Gods Veracity is the best and therefore the certainty of our â—aith is the greatest If a man be sure that what he believes is the Word of God he may be sure it is most true and never will fail And this no doubt may be sufficient to satisfie a Believer in his own mind or any one that receives the Scripture as the Word of God concerning the reality of the Faith he professeth that the ground of it is so certain but if he have to do with those that believe not the Scripture and so question the foundation of his Faith in that case he may have recourse to all those Arguments whereby we are wont to prove the Divine Authority of the Word and they all Confirm the Faith of a Christian and so the same account a Believer may give of the foundation of his Faith as of the Divinity of the Scripture if the Scripture be the Word of God and that Word be true his Faith built upon it is certain 3. The Actings of a Christians Faith are perceivable by himself Habits which cannot be discerned of themselves when they lye still yet may be known by their actings such an Habit Faith is which though it discover not it self or be not perceived when unactive yet may be discern'd in its exercise When a man actually believes he may know he believes reflect upon his own act as well as when he hears or sees or walks he may know he doth so and is not deceived in it Inward Sense hath as much certainty in it as outward and spiritual Sense as natural if a man therefore assent to the Truth of Gods Promise he may know he assents to it and if he accept of and close with the good Promised he may know he doth so though sometimes Temptations may be so strong and the Actings of Faith so weak and the Mind so clouded and distracted that a man may hardly be able to pass a right judgement on those Acts yet it is not always so but other whiles when the workings of Faith are more strong and vigorous and a man more clear of temptations he may do it In this therefore a man may give an account to himself of his Faith that it is reall he may know that he believes the Promise of Eternal Life as really as he believes any ordinary Truth proposed to him and that his believing and resting on Gods Word is no more a Fancy than his believing the word of a man As for others with whom he hath to do I know no reason why they should not believe him when he says he believes Gods Promise as well as when he says he believes their word or why one should be a Fancy any more than the other 4. The Effects of a Believers faith are evident to others in a good measure as well as to himself more fully As he may perceive his Faith purifying his heart taking it off from the World drawing it nearer to God so others may see his Conversation ordered correspondently to his believing they may see him Shie of Sin Diligent in Duty Conscientious in his Calling Patient in Sufferings Charitable to those that Need him Meek towards those that Offend him Profitable Spiritual Savoury in his Converse Just and Righteous in his Dealings and in a wâ—â—d the main of his Course and Wayes such as is agreable to thâ— Faith he professeth and the Recompence he expects So that if the lookers on cannot be infallibly certain of the reality of his Faith or that such a Carriage proceeds from such a Faith yet they may not only have their Mouths stopped that they cannot reasonably object against it but they may be bound in Charity to believe his Faith to be true and real when they see so much in him answerable to it and what he professeth to be the effect of it when they see him live like one that expects eternal Blessedness well may they believe that his Faith concerning it and hope of it is not feigned They see him walking strictly mortifying his flesh denying himself as to his outward enjoyments and carnal liberties and generally acting at such a rate as none would do that did not expect Eternal Life and what ground can they then have to suspect the Faith he pretends to to be only a Conceit or Fancy 2. An account may be given of the Practice of a Christian his Obedience and Holy walking the strictness and as the World counts it singularity of his Manners his universality diligence and constancy in the most spiritual and difficult Duties his watchfulness over his words thoughts actions his mortification and self-denyal and whatever it is in a Believers life which the World is most apt to quarrel with and to look upon as the effect of Humour or
duely on it and then walk worthy of it Now this Love of God I cannot more compendiously declare than by that of the Apostle Ephes 1.3 c. Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ c. In which ye are to observe six remarkable things in Gods blessing of us for which we are to bless him 1. That God the Father of Christ is the Author of all our Blessings especially of Spiritual Blessings Election Redemption and all that flow from thence are given us upon the account of Christ by whom God becomes our Father that is by Adoption by which we have the right of Inheritance that is Salvation 2. That by the word Blessings he includes all things pertaining to Salvation because he saith with all spiritual Blessings alluding to Gods Promise made to Abraham in Christ saying In thee shall all the Nationss of the earth he blessed And therefore he will give the consummation of this Blessing at the day of Judgment to his Elect saying Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you i. e. from his Everlasting Love ver 6. 3. That the Father loves and blesseth us that is his Chosen ones and none else Vers 4 5. who declare themselves such by their Faith and Holiness and Love vers 4. 4. That these Blessings are principally Spiritual Blessings such as the Elect only receive in a peculiar and distinguishing way and that under two Considerations 1. They are not carnal Blessings though the Father denyes not these to his Children for which his Child must bless him but here they are called spiritual because chiefly such 2. They are not common spiritual Blessings neither such are temporary Faith Heb. 6. 1 Cor. 13. a great degree of Knowledge even in Spiritual things yea a taste also of the Holy Ghost and the Beginning of a pious Life c. But only saving Grace and Eternal Glory the Fruit of Eternal Election for all other spiritual Blessings follow and flow from that as the true Knowiedge of God a living Faith effectual Calling Justification Sanctification a Christian Life Love to the Saints and Life Eternal this the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Blessing as containing and comprehending all fully and perfectly 5. But there is one thing more to be noted from that word in heavenly places For as carnal Blessings have their Beginning in the Earth and there they end so heavenly Blessings come from Heaven and terminate there in Glory without end Therefore we render it in heavenly places because it notes the Place of it which is Heaven where Christ is exalted in Glory as our Head to communicate and accumulate all spiritual Blessings on his elected and redeemed Members There it 's said Cap. 1.19 to Vers ult in heavenly places in Christ All this is amplified in this first and more particularized in the second where he saith He hath quickned us together Ephes 2.4 5 6. and raised us up together and made us sit together with Christ in heavenly places All this is an high act of Divine Love toward us By which three things here and in Heaven all Grace and Glory is meant and that Saints do partake of them with and by Christ And this leads to a 6. Sixth thing wherein the Love of God to us is declared in the place afore cited Ephes 1.3 4 5. viz. in Christ by which is assigned the material Cause of all Spiritual Blessings namely Christ as Mediator and High-Priest 1. We are blessed in Christ i. e. for Christs sake and upon his account 2. In Christ by the Merits of Christ by his Obedience Passion and Death 3. In Christ as our Head from whom as such all our Blessings flow in our Souls and Bodies therefore is he called the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 That is in the Person of Christ We are raised with him and sit in Heaven with him i. e. We are counted raised and sitting there by his Dignity and Glory as our Head By this Imputation the Papists Justification by Inherent Righteousness is fully confuted Also we have infinite Priviledge and Comfort that the Lord Jesus is made to us his members Righteousness and Holiness which can never be had any other way either within us or without us but in Christ our Head only and there only it is perfect and sure and all this in love For the Father hath demonstrated his love to Christ for this his undertaking and his love to us because he appointed him for us and accepts us in him Ephes 1.3 4 5 6. This is the first Branch of the fifth Use of Studying the Love of God to us in Christ in all the Causes of it and in all the Parts of it For this is a strong Motive to keep us in this Love to understand it and to believe it and to walk up to it 2. The second Branch To understand and practise our Love to the Lord answering his Love to us 1. Understand what Love that is wherewith we are to love the Lord and whereby we keep our selves in his Love to us Matth. 22.36 37. In order unto this ye are to know that the whole Worship of God consists in the Love of God Hence Ambrose saith The Love of God is the form of all Vertue yea the Head and Foundation of all true Religion The end of the Law is Love out of a pure heart a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.5 and Faith unfeigned There are three things that are in true Love 1. To be affected with a desirable Object upon our knowledge of it to be good 2. To be carryed out strongly in our Desires after it that we may be united with it 3. When we enjoy it to Rejoyce in it and to rest in it as in our End and Center of our Desires This the word signifies in the Original Hebrew and Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rest greatly in the enjoyment of the thing beloved as Etymologists have it Phavorinus c. So true Love contains in it Affection Desire Joy as the Beginning Progress and End of it and this will be perfect in Heaven and our Perfection and Happiness In this Love outvyes all other Grace 1 Cor. 13. We have an excellent Saying of St. Augustin to this purpose Tom. 4. libro de substantiâ dilectionis Cap. 6. This is then the rest of the Soul when it is fixed by the Love of God as to its desire nor desires any thing or Object besides but having got possession of that which it desires is wholly taken up with the Delight of it and is happy in the secure enjoyment of it Whence we are to learn wherein the true Nature of our Love of God stands that the Heart rest in the enjoyment of what it desires which it can do in nothing else And only our Love to God is true
holy thankfulness and joy And as for hardness of heart in Scripture it is taken for such a stiff rebellious obstinacy as will not be moved from their sins to obedience by any of Gods commands or threats and is called oft an Iron sinew a stiff neck c but it s never taken from the meer want of tears or passionate sorrow in a man that is willing to obey the hard hearted are the rebellious sorrow even for sin may be overmuch and a passionate woman or man may easily grieve and weep for the sin which they will not leave but obedience cannot be too much 3. And abundance are cast down by ignorance of themselves not knowing the sincerity which God hath given them grace is weak in the best of us here and little and weak grace is not very easily perceived for it acteth weakly and unconstantly and it is known but by its acts and weak grace is always joyned with too strong corruption and all sin in heart and life is contrary to grace and doth obscure it and such persons usually have too little knowledge and are too strange at home and unskilful in examining and watching their hearts and keeping its accounts And how can any under all these hinderances yet keep any full assurance of their own sincerity if with muchado they get some assurances neglect of duty or coldness in it or yielding to temptation or unconstancy in close obedience will make them question all again and ready to say it was all but hypocrisie and a sad and melancholly frame of mind is always apt to conclude the worse and hardly brought to see any thing that is good and tends to comfort 4. And in such a case there are too few that know how to fetch comfort from bare probabilities when they get not certainty much less from the meer offers of Grace and Salvation even when they cannot deny but they are willing to accept them and if none should have comfort but those that have assurance of their sincerity and salvation despair would swallow up the soules of most even of true believers 5. And Ignorance of other men increaseth the fears and sorrows of some They think by our preaching and writing that we are much better then we are And then they think that they are graceless because they come short of our supposed measures whereas if they dwelt with us and saw our failings or knew us but as well as we know our selves or saw all our sinful thoughts and vicious dispositions written in our fore-heads they would be cured of this errour 6. And unskilful Teachers do cause the griefs and perplexities of very many some cannot open to them clearly the tenor of the Covenant of grace some are themselves unacquainted with any spiritual heavenly consolations and many have no experience of any inward holiness and renewal by the Holy Ghost and know not what sincerity is nor wherein a Saint doth differ from an ungodly sinner as wicked deceivers make good and bad to differ but a little if not the best to be taken for the worst so some unskilful men do place sincerity in such things as are not so much as duty as the Papists in their manifold inventions and superstitions and many Sects in their unsound opinions And some unskilfully and unsoundly describe the state of grace and tell you how far an hypocrite may go so as unjustly discourageth and confoundeth the weaker sort of Christians and cannot amend the mis-expression of their Books or Teachers * One of my Hearers fell distracted with reading some passages in Mr. Sheepherds sincere Beleever which were not justifiable or sound And too many Teachers lay mens comforts if not Salvation on controversies which are past their reach and pronounce heresie and damnation against that which they themselves understand not even the Christian world these one thousand three hundred or one thousand two hundred years is divided into parties by the Teachers unskilful quarrels about words which they took in several sences Is it any wonder if the hearers of such are distracted IV. I have told you the causes of distracted sorrows I am now to tell you what is the cure but alas it is not so soon done as told and I shall begin where the disease beginneth and tell you both what the Patient himself must do and what must be done by his friends and Teachers I. Look not on the sinful part of your troubles either as better or worse than indeed it is 1. Too many persons in their sufferings and sorrows think they are only to be pittyed and take little notice of the sin that caused them or that they still continue to commit and too many unskilful friends and Ministers do only comfort them when a round chiding and discovery of their sin should be the better part of the Cure and if they were more sensible how much sin their is in their overvaluing the world and not trusting God and in there hard thoughts of him and their poor unholy thoughts of his goodness and in their undervaluing the heavenly Glory which should satisfie them in the most afflicted State and in their daily Impatiences cares and discontents and in denying the mercies or grace received this would do more to cure some than words of comfort when they say as Jonah I do well to be angry and think that all their denials of Grace and distracting sorrows and wrangling against Gods love and mercy are their duties its time to make them know how great sinners they are 2. And yet when as foolishly they think that all these sins are marks of a graceless state and that God will take the Devils temptations for their sins and condemn them for that which they abhor and take their very disease of melancholly for a crime this also needs confutation and reprehension that they may not by errour cherish their passions or distress II. Particularly Give not way to a habit of peevish impatience though it is carnal love to somewhat more than to God and Glory which is the damning sin yet Impatience must not pass for innocence did you not reckon upon sufferings and of bearing the Cross when you first gave up your selves to Christ And do you think it strange look for it and make it your daily study to prepare for any tryal that God may bring you to and then it will not surprize you and overwhelm you Prepare for the loss of Children and Friends for the loss of Goods and for Poverty and Want prepare for slanders injuries or poysons for sickness pain and death It is your unpreparedness that maketh it seem unsufferable And remember that it is but a vile body that suffereth which you alwayes knew must suffer death and rot to dust and whoever is the instrument of your sufferings it is God that tryeth you by it and when you think that you are only displeased with men you are not guiltless of murmuring against God or else his overruling hand
memory Our Salvation in some sort depends upon it For without the Gospel no Salvation without Faith no benefit by the Gospel and without Hearing and Retaining what we hear no saving Faith 2. By way of Exception in the end of the Verse unless ye have believed in vain your Hearing is in vain and your Believing is in vain if ye do not stedfastly cleave to the Gospel and to this material Doctrine of it the RESURRECTION and keep in Memory what I have preached unto you concerning it The Lesson then that we may learn from hence is this viz. Doctrine If mâ—n would be saved by the Gospel they must keep in memory what is preached unto them And under this Proposition I am to handle the Causes and Cure of a bad Memory or the Hindrances and Helps of a good Memory in Spiritual Things And in order hereunto I shall shew 1. What the Memory is 2. The Excellency of this Faculty especially in its primitive State 3. The Corruption of it 4. The Restauration or Sanctification of it 5. The Ordinary Impediments thereof 6. The proper Helps unto it 7. Answer some Cavils of the wilful and some of the Doubts of the weak about it And 8. make Application of all And the good Lord help us all now to remember what is preached to us Memoria est animus dicimus enim vide ut illud in animo habeas cum obliviscimur dicimus non fuit in animo Aug. Confes l. 10. c. 14. Non est in Homine memoria distincta ab intellectu Cajet I. What the Memory is it is that Faculty of the Soul wherein are Reserved the things we know Though it belong to the Sensitive Soul and so is in some Measure common to Brutes with Men yet I shall handle as it is seated in the rational Soul where it is the Storehouse not only of whatsoever is brought in by the Eye and Ear which are the two Senses of Discipline but also of what is imparted by the understanding For the Memory is neerly allyed to the Understanding if it be not the same as many think It s Office however is 1. to Receive such things as are presented to it wherein it is fitly enough compared to soft Wax which is prepared to receive any Impression made upon it 2. To Retain and preserve what is laid up therein wherefore it is oft call'd by the Antients Venter animae the belly of the Soul Aug. to 10. p. 509. There is a little Kingdom in the Soul of Man The King or rather Vice-Roy is the Will the Privy Counsel is the Understanding the Judge is the Conscience and the Great Treasurer is the Memory 3. To Recall or recover what was out of mind Quorum certè recordamur eorum est memoria quicum penitùs obliti sumus eorum oblivio quorum partim meminimus partim obliti sumus eorum est reminis centia Zanch. tom 3. l. 2. c. 5. And this is proper to Mankind and is not in Brutes For it proceeds from the motion of the Images of things in the brain by the activity of Reason which considering the time place persons and such like circumstances of things by degrees recovers what was out of the way for as things themselves so the phantasms of things are connexed together and by one we recover another And this intellectual memory is inseparable from the rational Soul in that the Soul undoubtedly remembers when it is quite separate from the body Luke 16.25 But Abraham said to the Rich man in torments Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things II. The Excellence of this Faculty the Soul of man is a Subject of wonder and nothing more wonderful in it than the Memory Quicquid sit jurarem esse divinum Cic. that such innumerable Images of things should be lodged in a finite Faculty and that what seems to be utterly lost in it should be fully recovered wherefore it is justly deemed by the learned a miraculous Mercy Zanch. Memoria nobis est surdorum auditio visio caecorum Plut. Omnium rerum thesaurus custos est memoria nec enarrari potest tam grandis est ejus perplexitas anima ipsa est Aug. de Epic. anim Plin. Hist l. 7. cap. 24. Casc Rhodig l. 2. cap. 10. Tantum scimus quantum memoria tenemus Erasm It hath power to make things that are in themselves absent and past to be present By the help of Memory we retain what we have read in Books and what we have heard in Sermons or other Discourse the Examples of Gods Mercies and Judgments for our Incouragement and Warning All these and ten thousand things more are laid up in the Memory which is the Souls Treasury so that the Soul would be a poor Soul without the Memory we may see the worth of this Faculty by those that are depriv'd of the use of it that can remember no body nor the last question that they did ask Thus we read of Messala Corvinus an Orator that forgat even his own Name and of Atticus the Son of Herod the Sophist that could never remember the Names of the Letters of the Alphabet till his Father was fain to name four and twenty Boys by the Names of the several Letters that he might retain them All a mans past life would be lost if his Memory were lost so are the comforts of the Soul lost so far as they are forgotten So that the Soul would be poor in Knowledge poor in gifts poor in comfort without the Memory Especially this Faculty was happy in its primitive State for then its Reception was easy the Impressions firm the Recovery if any use of it ready then 't was like a clear Chrystal Glass wherein all that was contained in it was easy seen now it is crackt and muddy then 't was like an iron Chest now like a Bag with Holes It had the Neighbourhood of a clear Understanding and of an holy Will and Adam could not but remember his Creator in those Days of his Youth III. The Corruption or Depravation of this Faculty For by the Fall of Adam each Faculty of the Soul was woefully deprav'd when a curious Watch falls to the ground though it be sorely maimed yet some wheel or pin may have received no hurt but here it is otherwise Our Fall was like that of some rare Glass which thereby is shatter'd all to pieces there remains all the Materials of it so doth Reason and Memory with the Soul but they must be melted and cast a new before they be good for any thing The Corruption of the Memory stands 1. In remembring those things which we should forget As 1. Things unprofitable there are a thousand needless and useless matters that fill the memory and keep out better things Like as if one should croud wast Paper Rags and broken Pitchers into a Cabinet which should be stor'd with things of value There is in all
new Wine take away the heart And therefore keep a strict watch over your selves and if you loath those Christian Rules to which you are sworn yet do not abhor morality do not renounce humanity 6. Violent passions spoil the Memory such as of Anger Grief Love Fear Passions we must have but Constitution and Education allay them in some Reason moderates them in others and Grace regulates them in the Godly Where these briddles are wanting they shake all the faculties as an Earth-quake doth a Country For example Anger when it rages manifestly alters and inflames the blood and consequently the Spirits and melts off the impressions in the brain just as the fire melts the wax and the impressions that by the Seal were fixt upon it So excessive Grief Fear and Love you cannot but perceive in your selves and others how your poor memories have suffered by some or all of them And therefore labour to mortify your passions and to that end endeavour for strength of grace strong passions had need of strong grace as you know a heady Horse had need of a strong bridle for you will find that as there is much guilt in them so much harms comes by them Where by the way you may see the excellency of our blessed Religion which tends to the health and quieting as well as to the saving of the Soul 7. A multitude of indigested Notions If a man have a stock of methodical and digested knowledg it is admirable how much the Memory will contain as you know how many images may be discern'd at once in a glass but when these Notions are heaped incoherently in the Memory without order or dependance they confound and overthrow the Memory As a Schollar that has read abundance but digested nothing he knows not where to find any thing it breaks his Memory As excess of meat cloys the stomack so an unreasonable an unmeasurable heaping of things in the memory confound it Thus many read or hear much very much too much perhaps for their capacities they have not stowage for it and so they are ever learning and never come to the knowledg of truth Omnis festinatiâ— caca Senec. like them 2 Tim. 3 7. Therefore look that ye understand and digest things by meditation run not on too fast he that rides post can never draw maps of the Country When one is impatient to stay on things Rectiùs illi quâ— multus non multa legenda censent si memoriae consulendum Magir. they leave but a shallow impression as grediness of the appetite hinders digestion When a thing is well studied and clearly apprehended it will be much better remembred And thus I have shewed the hindrances of the memory or what be the common causes of a bad memory which is the fifth Point VI. The sixth thing to be handled is the proper Helps to it And they may be rank'd under three Heads 1. Natural Helps 2. Artificial 3. Spiritual Of these in order 1. As to natural helps as I must not invade the Province of the learned Physitian so I would omit nothing that is in general necessary for this purpose And so it is observed that as too much coldness and moistness of the brain is a great cause of Forgetfulness so on the other side a convenient heat and dryness of it is a great help to the memory For the heat thereof disposeth it sooner to receive and the dryness of it to retain the impression As the wax you know being warmed receives and then being dry preserves the prints of the wax Hence some think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Remember signifies the male-kind which hath more heat in its constitution and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for the Female which implyes forgetfulness that sex being colder another reason being also given of that Etymology to wit because the remembrance of the former induces whereas the Woman being incorporated into another Family is sooner forgotten Two things I would here recommend 1. A sober Diet. For if excesses in meat and drink do disturb the brain and consequently weaken the memory then certainly a sparing and temperate diet do preserve the Blood and Spirits in order and so by consequence a Plato in Timao together with a good air where it may be had are a certain though not so sensible help to the memory And therefore take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with fâ—rfeiting and â—â—â—kenness and cares of this life and so you quite forget that day that 〈◊〉 on men unawares Luk. 21 34. The Heathens went far in this moderation how far then should Christians go before them and what a base thing it is to destroy our Reason by gratifying our Appetite 2. A Quiet Mind For if all Passions that are violent weaken then a sedate and quiet mind greatly strengthens the Memory It s true Man is born unto trouble as the Spark do fly upward Job 5 7. And if we subject our minds unto them our Souls will be like the raging Sea in perpetual agitation and then the memory shattered As in a pool of water when it is clear you may see the Fishes and every thing easily in it but when it is troubled every thing disappears So is it with our Reason and Memory as long as the mind is quiet we may tell where to find any thing in the memory but when it is distracted every thing is hid from us Let Faith therefore ply its business upon Almighty God and his Promises and then Isa 26 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because he trusteth in thee Saepe recordari medâ—câ—mine fortius omni 2. Artificial or outward helps are 1. The Repettiion of those things which we would remember Revolving them in the mind that makes the impression deeper and then the audible repeating of them greatly fixes them there Deut. 11 18 19. Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your Soul and shall teach them your Children speaking of them when thou sittest in thy House and when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest down and when thou risest up Upon this account some great Orators have used to pronounce their harangues in their studies to fix them the better on their memories And it is recorded of Pythagoras that he appointed his Schollars to recollect every night before they went to bed what they had heard or done all that day How much more should you on the Lords-day at night revive what you have heard confer of it with others repeat it to your Family by all which you will relieve the weakness of this Faculty 2. Writing what we would remember is a merciful help to the memory a Ephaenicia Mare literas memoriae adversuâ— oblivionem remedium accivit Plutarch Socrates indeed held that Letters proved the ruin of the memory because before the invention of Letters people committed worthy matters to memory
were common between them And in the next succeeding Ages this fraternal Love was so conspicuous in the Professors of his Sacred Discipline Tert. Apoâ— c. 3â— that their Enemies observ'd it as a rare and remarkable thing See how the Christians love one another see how ready they are to die for one another Now the same gracious Principle that inclines us to do one Command will make us universally willing to observe all for sincere Obedience primarily respects the Authority of the Lawgiver which binds the whole Law upon the Conscience James 2. And as he that breaks the Law wilfully in one point is guilty of all because the violation of a single Precept proceeds from the same Cause that induces men to transgress all that is contempt of the Divine Majesty so he that sincerely obeys one Command does with consent of heart and serious endeavors obey all And from hence 't is clear that without a religious and unreserved regard of the divine Commands 't is impossible there should be in any person a gracious affection to the Saints that is the product of Obedience to God and consequently the observance of his Precepts is the certain proof of our Love to his Children 2. Spiritual Love to the Saints arises from the sight of the Divine Image appearing in their Conversation Now if the Beauty of Holiness be the attractive of our Love it will be fastned on the Law of God in the most intense degree The most excellent Saints on Earth have some mixtures of Corruption their Holiness is like the Morning-light that is checquered with the shadows and obscurity of the Night and 't is our wisdom not to love their infirmities but to preserve an unstained affection to them But the Law of God is the fairest Transcript of his Nature wherein his glorious Holiness is most resplendent Psa 19.7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes This ravish'd the heart of David with an inexpressible Affection O how I love thy Law Psal 119. it is my Meditation all the day And he repeats the declaration of his Love to it with new fervor upon this ground I love thy Law because it is pure Now Love to the Commands of God will transcribe them in our hearts and Lives As affectionate expressions to the Children of God without the real supply of their wants are but the shadows of Love so words of esteem and respect to the Law of God without unfeigned and universal Obedience are but an empty Pretence 3. The Divine Relation of the Saints to God as their Father is the Motive of spiritual Love to them And this is consequent to the former for by partaking of his Holiness they partake of his life and likeness And from hence they are the dearest Objects of his Love his eye and heart is always upon them Now if this Consideration excites Love to the Children of God it will be as powerful to incline us to keep his Commands for the Law of God that is the Copy of his Sacred Will is most near to his Nature and he is infinitely tender of it Our Saviour tells us that it is casier for Heaven and Earth to pass away Luk. 16.17 than for one tittle of the Law to fail If the entire World and all the Inhabitants of it were destroyed there would be no loss to God but if the Law lose its Authority and Obligation the Divine Holiness would suffer a Blemish The Use of the Doctrine is to try our Love to the Children of God to which all pretend by this infallible Rule our Obedience to his Commands This is absolutely necessary because the deceit is so easie and so dangerous and it will be most comfortable if upon this Trial our Love be found to be spiritual and divine The deceit is easie because Acts of Love may be expressed to the Saints from other Principles than the Love of God Some for vain-glory are bountiful and when their Charity seems so visibly divine that men admire it there is the Woâ—m of vanity at the root that corrupts and makes it odious to God The Pharisees are charged with this by our Saviour Mat. 6 2. their Alms were not the effect of Charity but Ostentation and whilst they endeavoured to make their Vices virtuous they made their Virtues vicious There is a natural Love among persons united by Consanguinity that remains so entire since the ruine of Mankind by the Fall and is rather from the force of Nature than the virtue of the Will and this in all kind Offices may be express'd to the Saints There is a sweetness of Temper in some that inclines them to wish well to all and such tender Affections that are easily moved and melted at the sight of others miseries and such may be beneficent and compassionate to the Saints in their afflictions but the Spring of this Love is good Nature not divine Grace There are humane Respects that incline others to kindness to the Saints as they are united by interest Fellow-Citizens and Neighbours and as they receive advantage by Commerce with them or as obliged by their Benefits But Civil Amity and Gratitude are not that holy Affection that is an assurance of our spiritual state There are other Motives of Love to the Saints that are not so low nor mercenary in the thickest darkness of Paganism the Light of Reason discovered the amiable excellence of Virtue as becoming the humane Nature and useful for the Tranquility and Welfare of Mankind and the Moral Goodness that adorns the Saints the Innocence Purity Meekness Justice Clemency Benignity that are visible in their Conversations may draw respects from others who are strangers to the Love of God and careless of his Commandments And as the Mistake of this Affection is easie so it is infinitely dangerous for he that builds his hope of Heaven upon a sandy foundation upon false Grounds will fall ruinously from his Hopes and Felicity at last How fearful will be the disappointment of one that has been a Favourer of the Saints that has defended their Cause protected their Persons relieved their Necessities and presum'd for this that his Condition is safe as to Eternity though he lives in the known neglect of other Duties and the indulgent practice of some Sin But if we find that our Love to the Children of God flows from our Love to God that sways the Soul to an entire compliance to his Commands and makes us observant of them in the course of our Lives What a blessed Hope arises from this Reflection We need not have the Book of the Divine Decrees opened and the Secrets of Election unveil'd 1 Joh. 3.14 for we know that we are past from Death to Life if we love the Brethren This is an infallible Effect and Sign of the Spiritual Life and the Seed and Evidence of Eternal Life Quest What must we do to
Thess 2.13 God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation 1 Thess 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation which Salvation doth include absence of all evil and presence of all good and this Salvation being Eternal Heb. 5.9 infers the absence of all evil for ever and the presence of all good for ever and whosoever is delivered from all privative Evils and possessed of all positive Everlasting good and that for ever can not be denyed to be happy for ever II. Christ hath redeemed some to be infallibly brought to Eternal Glory What reason can be given of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God if there be no Eternal misery for men to be delivered from nor any Eternal happiness to be possessed of For 1. Did Christ dye to deliver his Followers from Poverty and Prisons from Sorrow and Sufferings from Trouble and Tribulation What! and yet his Holy Humble and Sincere people lye under these more than other Men that are wicked and ungodly why was Paul then in stripes and imprisonments in hunger and thirst in cold and nakedness in perils and jeopardy of his Life continually and such as Pilate Faelix and Festus in great worldly prosperity Or can it be imagined that Men persisting in Sin should be more partakers of the fruits of Christs Death than those that forsake their sin repent and turn and follow him 2. Did Christ suffer and dye to purchase only Temporal good things as Riches Honours for his Disciples Were these worth his precious Blood VVhatever Christ dyed for it cost him his most Sacred Blood Was it then for Temporal enjoyments only which Turks and Pagans may and do possess more than Thousands of his true and faithful Followers Did Christ intend the benefits of his Death for these in more especial manner then for such as remain finally impenitent and yet shall such reap the fruit of all his Sufferings and those that believe on him go without them Sober reason doth abhor it and all the Scripture is against it Would Christ have humbled himself to such a contemptible Birth miserable Life lamentable painful shameful Death only for transitory temporal fading Mercies If we consider the variety of his sufferings from God Men and Devils the dignity of the Sufferer I profess I cannot imagine any reason of all Christs undertakings and performances if there be not an Eternal state of Misery in suffering of evil things by his Death that Believers might be delivered from and of Glory in enjoying of good things to be brought unto III. The Spirit of God doth sanctifie some that they might be made meet to be partakers of the Eternal Inheritance of the Saints in light As all are not Godly so all are not Ungodly Though most be as they were born yet many there be that are born again there is a wonderful difference betwixt men and men the Spirit of God infusing a principle of spiritual Life and making some all over new working in them Faith in Christ Holy Fear and Love Patience and Hope longing Desires renewing in them the Holy Image of God is as the earnest and first fruits assuring of them in due time of a plentiful harvest of Everlasting Happiness Faith is in order to Eternal Life and Salvation Joh. 3.16 Love hath the promise of it 1 Cor. 2.9 2 Tim. 4.8 Jam. 1.12 Obedience ends in it Heb. 5.9 Hope waits for it Rom. 8.25 and because their hope shall never make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 therefore there must be such an Eternal-Blessed state they hope for IV. The Souls of all men are immortal though they had a beginning yet shall never cease to be therefore must while they be be in some state and because they be Eternal must be in some Eternal state This Eternal state must be either in the Souls enjoyment of God or in separation from him for the wit of Man cannot find out a third for the Soul continuing to be must be with God or not with God shall enjoy him or not enjoy him for to say he shall and shall not or to say he shall not and yet shall is a contradiction and to say he neither shall nor shall not is as bad if therefore the Soul be Eternal and while it shall be shall perfectly enjoy God it shall be Eternally happy If it shall for ever be and that without God it shall be Eternally miserable because God is the chiefest good the ultimate end and perfection of man The great work in this then is to prove that the Soul is Eternal and shall for ever be For which I offer these things 1. There is nothing within nor without the Soul that can be the cause of its ceasing to be here except God who though he can take away the being of Souls and Angels too yet he hath abundantly assured us that he will not Nothing within it because it is a Spiritual Being and hath no Internal Principle by contrary qualities causing a cessation of its Being and because it is simple and indivisible it is immortal and incorruptible for that which is not compounded of parts cannot be dissolved into parts and where there is no dissolution of a Being there is no corruption or end of it there is no Creature without it that can cause the Soul to cease Matth. 10.28 Not able to kill the Soul Luc. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do if they would kill the Soul they cannot when they have killed the Body they have done their worst their most their all 2. The Soul of man hath not dependance upon the Body as to its Being and Existence It hath certain actings and operations which do not depend upon the Body and if the operations of the Soul be independent from the Body such must the principle be from whence such operations do arise and if it can act without dependance on the Body then it can exist and be without the Body In the Body without dependance on the Body it hath the knowledge of immaterial Beings as God and Adgels which were never seen by the eye of the Body nor can because there must be some proportion between the object and the faculty and the Soul doth know it self wherein it hath no need of the phantasie for when it is intimately present to it self it wanteth not the ministry of the phantasie to its own intellection Besides it can conceive of universals abstracted from its singulars in which it doth not depend upon the phantasie for phantasmata sunt singularium non universalium therefore since it can act in the body without dependance on the Body it can exist without the Body and not dye when the Body doth which yet is more plain and certain from the Scripture which telleth us that the Soul of Lazarus after death was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosom Luc. 16.22 but they did not carry it dead or alive but alive
and not dead Stephen when dying expected the continuance of his Soul in being and its entrance into Blis Act. 7.59 saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The Thief upon the Cross had a promise from Christ that that day he should be with him in Paradise in his Body he is not yet therefore in his Soul without the Body therefore the Soul doth exist without the Body Paul believed the Immortality of his Soul and its existence after the death of his Body Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better If his Soul had not existed he had not been a moment sooner with Christ nay his Soul in the Body had some communion with Christ if it dyed with the Body it had none and that was not far better but worse 3. The original of the Soul by immediate Creation is usually brought as an argument of the Immortality and Continuance of it to Eternity to assert the Creation of the Soul hath this difficulty attending on it how to clear the propagating of Original Sin to affirm the Soul is extraduce propagated by generation hath this knot to be untied how it doth consist with the Immortality of the Soul when that which is generable is corruptible but I for present shall take their arguing which prove it shall exist for ever because it is created immediately by God according to the worne axiom whatsoever is ingenerable is also incorruptible The Soul cannot be from the Matter or Bodies of the Parents because that which is Spiritual and Immaterial cannot be produced out of that which is a Corporeal and Material Substance for then the effect would be more noble than its cause and the cause would give and impart something to the effect which it self hath not but that which any thing hath not it cannot give to another as in a Spiritual so in a Natural sense that which is born of the flesh is flesh but the Soul is a Spirit Nor are the Souls of the Children from the Souls of the Parents either by Multiplication or Division not by Division that part of the Souls of the Parents should be communicated and pass from the Parents to the Children because it is a Spirit and therefore indivisible into parts because it hath none being without matter therefore without quantity therefore without divisible parts Not by Multiplication for this must be by participation of something from the Parents Souls or not if not then it inferreth Creation for that which is brought out of nothing into being is created if by participation of something of the substance of the Parents Soul this infers Division which before was shewed cannot be 4. That the Soul shall never dye but abide to all Eternity I argue either God neither can nor will maintain the Soul in Eternal duration or he would but cannot or he could but will not or he both can and will If he cannot then God is not Omnipotent for the Soul being a Spirit it no more implies a contradiction that the Soul should live for ever then that Angels and Devils should live for ever If he can and any say he will not I desire a reason of this assertion how shall any man know Gods Will by but what he hath revealed and God hath not revealed that he will not maintain the Souls of men in Eternal Being but the contrary It follows then that God both can and will and therefore they must live to all Eternity V. The certainty of an Eternal State in the other unseen world is evident from the innate appetite universally in all men after Eternal happiness There is no man but would be happy and there is no man that would have his happiness cease a man might as soon cease to be a man as cast away all desires of Happiness or Will to be for ever miserable though most mistake what their happiness is This innate Appetite cannot be filled with all the good things in this World for though the rational appetite be subjectively finite yet it is objectively infinite God therefore and Nature which do nothing in vain hath put unsatisfied restless desires after happiness into the hearts of men which cannot be any thing among things seen and Temporal there must be something that must be the object of this Appetite and able to quiet and fill it in the other world though most by folly blindness and sloathfulness miss of it VI. The absurdities which follow the denyal of an Eternal state of men though now unseen demonstrate the certainty of it 1. For then the lives of men even of the best must needs be uncomfortable and the life of reason would as such be subject to more fears and terrors than the life of sense which is against all sense and reason for Beasts must dye but do not foresee that they must dye but the rational foresight of Death would imbitter all his sweetest delights of Life if there were no reason to hope for another after this and the more the Life of Man as Man is more noble than the Life of Beasts the more the foresight of the certain loss thereof without another after this would affright afflict torment Now it is not rational to think that God who made Man the chiefest and the choicest of all his visible works should endue him with such powers and faculties as Understanding and Will to make his Life as man more burdensom by being filled with fretting fears wracking griefs and tormenting terrors more than any Beasts are liable to or capable of Nay and add that the more any Man did improve exercise and use his reason in the frequent Meditations of Death the more bitter his Life would be to consider that all the present good he doth enjoy must certainly and shortly be lost by Death and he not capable of any good after Death in the stead and room thereof 2. Then the Condition of many wicked yea the worst of men would be better than the condition of the godly that are the best if the wicked have their good things here and no evil hereafter and the people of God their evil things here and no good hereafter 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we had hope we were of all men most miserable 3. Then the chiefest and greatest encouragements to undergo Sufferings and Losses for Gods sake were taken away Why did Moses refuse the Honours of Pharaoh's Court and chose to suffer Afflictions with the People of God but because he had his Eye to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.25 26. Why did Paul endure such Conflicts but for the hope of Life and Immortality which the Gospel had brought to light 2 Tim. 1.10 12. and well might he ask what it would advantage him that he fought with Beasts at Ephesus if the Dead rise not to Eternal happiness 1 Cor. 15.32 Might not then the Suffering Saints repent when they come to dye that they had been so imprudent