though all Good be the Object of the Will in its Latitude yet the Will fastens particularly upon that Good which by the Understanding is presented to be his Chiefest Good and in order to the Union unto this Good is the Motion of the Will and subservient to this Motion are the several Passions and Affections of the Soul which are but the impressions of the actions of the Will upon the Blood and Spirits whereby the Will exciteth and produceth those external actions in the body which tend to the execution of its commands and therefore I omit them Upon what hath been said may appear wherein lies the immediate Cause of Man's miscarriage to his Supream End It lies in the Defects of his Understanding and his Will. 1. For his Vnderstanding If this hath either no Light or a false Light the Will is misguided The Soul of Man will be moving to some thing or other under the notion of Good this sets the Understanding a work which if not rightly Principled takes up that for his Good which either the temper and constitution of the body and fleshly appetite or the present opportunity suggests and affects and puts the intention of the Will upon it as Pleasures or Profits or Honours or empty Speculations and yet in the pursuit of these a Man that hath almost any Intellectuals though it may be he arrive not to the true and positive Knowledge of what is his Supream End most commonly finds that this is not and though sometimes he knows not why yet he is sick and weary of them as unsatisfying and deceiving things wheraas the true cause is that disproportion they bear to the nature of the Soul and are not that End to which it is ordained and would move if it knew it and how to attain it Again though the Understanding doth sometimes find that these are not the things will make me happy but I spy the true and Everlasting Happiness yet the Conviction is not so strong and evident that it dares conclude the pursuit thereof to be preferred before the present Enjoyment of those delights which we are sure of and from hence it comes to pass that the competition of these present Enjoyments will soon starve and famish these uncompleat Convictions and all pursuits in the Will of them These and the like defects happen in the Understanding 2. In the Will which hath lost her Liberty to follow her Light and is captivated by the Sensual Appetite The Understanding being rightly inlightned presents to the Will several Ends the Subordinate Ends Preservation of the Compositum by Meat and Drink acquisition of Wealth to provide these Conveniences obtaining of Power to secure that Wealth the Supream End Blessedness and that wherein it consists shews the Will that the Value of these Ends must be the measure of her pursuit of them viz. with subordination to the Supream End in order to it and bids her beware of turning the Subordinate Ends to Ultimate Ends But the Sensual Appetite either before the Counsel of the Understanding hath precipitated the Will into a violent pursuit of those present and sensible Goods or so bewitched her after in the enjoyment thereof that it can no more listen to the entertainment of the pursuit of a future Spiritual Good than if it had no Reason the Beast in Man hath got the Man upon his Back and runs away with him contrary to the cries and dictates even of Reason that should rule it And of these and the like defects all Mankind is sick both in his Understanding and Will and cured we must be before we can clearly and uniformly move to our Supream End which what it is as the next Inquiry CHAP. IV. Of the Supream End of Man. WHAT is that Good for the Sons of Men as it was the greatest Inquiry of the Wisest of Men so it is that Problem that hath tortured the Wits and wearied the pursuits of most of the Children of Men that have been in the World. The universality of the question grows from that restless motion in the Soul of Man after some End which puts every Man at last upon the prosecution of somewhat as his End though it may be not upon the speculative and critical inquiry concerning it As the ordinary rational faculty of the Soul teacheth a Man to conclude rationally though he have not that artificial Reason of Reason which is acquired by speculation and study And as this is the cause that puts many upon the Inquiry and all upon the Prosecution of some End so the difficulty of the Decision doth produce that variety of Judgements and Practice concerning this which are impossible all to be sound and true but possibly they may be all false in as much as there can be but one Supream Good and adequate End of Man which is his Happiness And from hence it is that amongst the several determinations of Men concerning this matter each do abundantly convince the other to be errors and mistakes and though none do sufficiently satisfie and convince a Man that it is the right yet doth abundantly satisfie that the adverse Opinion is mistaken concerning this Point because the Truth is but one the rest are all Errors and though some carry more likelihood of Reason than others yet it carries so much distance from Truth that it is discernable not to be the Truth and the mistake is not only evident to Reason but even to Sense it self That Man that would go about to perswade me that Happiness consists in Corporal Pleasures outward good of Body or Fortune Wealth or Honours Knowledge of all created Beings practice of Moral Virtues c. I need no other conviction of the falsity of these but this That in the midst of any or all of these I still find those affections in my Soul that cannot consist with Happiness but mingles Misery with this thin and empty Happiness 1. Desire of somewhat more or somewhat else which I have not which ariseth not from the Goodness of what I enjoy but from the Emptiness and Narrowness of it 2. Consequently Grief for what I want and have not 3. Fear of Loss of what I have And never any Man in this World in all the Enjoyments he ever had or was capable of except that which we now intend to speak of but in the midst of all had these three Affections about him actually working which can never consist with Happiness Now the general Grounds of these mistakes in the practice of Men is 1. The Error of their Judgment 2. The Impetus or force of the Sensual Appetite which precipitates and captivates their Judgment The Speculative Error ariseth from Ignorance 1. Of the Subject Man for let it be but once granted that the Soul of Man is an Intellectual Immortal Substance all those Opinions which place Happiness in this Life will be convinced clearly false and vain But though the Knowledge of this be sufficient to tell me what is not my
as things stand with Man he hath not this means of his Cure in or from himself but must derive it being now lost from him who at first gave it him the next Enquiry is Whether God hath appointed any Means for the cure of Man's Ignorance Perverseness and Guilt and consequently to lead him to Happiness and what it is wherein we conclude 1. That God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness hath revealed and conveyed to the Children of Men the Means of their Happiness in several times by several ways and in several degrees in all successions of times 2. That this Discovery and Means of Happiness he hath by the course of his Providence put together and diffused to Man-kind in the Compilation of the Old and New Testament wherein are contained not only the clear Discoveries of things to be Known and Believed conducing to Man's everlasting Happiness but likewise things to be Done and effectual Perswasions for the doing of it 3. That in the Use thereof there are not only the natural Means of discovery of Truths necessary to be known of things to be done and most effectual and powerful Perswasions beyond all other moral Arguments to the Obedience thereof but likewise a strong Concurrence of the Power of God according to his Will subduing the Understanding to believe and the Will to obey 4. That by this Belief of those necessary Truths and Obedience to the Will of God thus revealed Man shall be conducted to his everlasting Happiness which was the great End of his Creation CHAP. VI. 〈◊〉 the Credibility of the Sacred Scriptures THESE things be of easie consequence if once this be clearly proved to be the Word of God for then we argue demonstratively and à priori from the Cause to the Effect viz. Because that whatsoever is the express Word of God himself which is the God of Truth cannot chuse but be infallibly true and beyond all disputation But the question will be upon the Assumption viz Whether this be in truth the Word of God which if once granted all the rest will need no proof The Understanding of Man hath wrought in it a four-fold Assent to every Truth whereunto it assents 1. An Inherent Assent that is of such Principles if any be which are connatural to Man. Thus the Understanding assâ—â—ts not to this Proposition That the Old and New Testament are the Word of God. 2. Knowledge wrought by Demonstration or Scientia per causam Thus though there be many Truths in the Scripture that are demonstrable yet that these Scriptures are the infallible Word of God is not naturally demonstrable 3. Belief which is the taking up of a Truth upon the Testimony of him that asserts it This that it may be firm requires two qualifications First a firm and absolute perswasion That what the Author affirms is trâ— And thus a Man once admitting That this is 〈◊〉 â—ord of God doth most unquestionably believâ— because the truth of the Author is demonstrably unquestionable 2. A firm and clear Assent That this is the Word of that infallible Author And this is wrought only by a secret and immediate work of the Power of God upon the Soul and is as firm Assent if not more firm than Science it self 4. Perswasion or Opinion which riseth upon probable grounds And although this can never arrive to Belief or Knowledge yet according to the strength concurrence and multiplicity of Arguments concurring to the Perswasion it may arrive to the very next degree to Belief or Knowledge Thus it may be firmly concluded That this is the Word of God and the Means which he in his Providence hath appointed to guide Man to the attaining of his last Happiness This Perswasion though it be not Faith it doth prepare the Heart for that high and noble Assent and mighly strengthens it being attained These are in the next place to be considered 1. It doth discover those Truths clearly and satisfactorily which hath perplexed all the Labours and Enquiries of the wisest Men and thereby unriddles and renders easie most of those difficulties and doubts in natural and moral Philosophy which could never or not without strange uncertainty and reluctation be so much as guessed at by them The abstrusest Truths are hardly discovered and found out which is one cause of those several absurd Opinions and Positions which have been invented and imposed by Mens Fancies to make out supply and reconcile those Difficulties which the Ignorance of it may be one Truth doth most necessarily occasion but when that Truth is once discovered it doth most clearly resolve those Difficulties and scatter those Absurdities and procure an easie Assent from that Reason in Man which could not at first easily discover it To consider this in some Particulars In Matters Natural Whence grew all those strange Chimera's concerning the first Matter Its Eternity Its undeterminateness and a thousand disputes Whether it is What it is and all end in nothing but unsatisfactory and unresolving Disputes concerning Eduction of Forms out of the power of it and by what Agent concerning the eternal succession and concatenation of Causes concerning the beginning of Motion especially of the Heavens the endeavouring to reconcile an eternal duration to a successive motion concerning the different activities and qualities of simple Bodies their mutual actings one upon another the cause of the disgregating of the simple Bodies one from another unto that convenient distance and of their concurrence in production of mixt Bodies the production of Creatures especially Man the nature of the Soul the fitting of Objects and Powers in the Senses and Intellect All these and millions of Disputes rise from the ignorance of that Truth which at one view we may with satisfaction read resolved in the First of Genesis and in no Book in the World beside but what hath been borrowed from thence Again Touching the orderly Position of the Creatures The conveniency of one thing to the exigence and necessity of another The moderation and government of things endued with destructive qualities each to other The concurrence of several contingent Causes to the producing of Mutations in States Religion c. as if those contingent Causes had been as it were animated with one Soul or Spirit and the like The observation of these and the like things and the want of true knowledge have put Men to those exigences of invention which resolve them into Fate or Destiny into the power of the Stars into the Law of Nature and yet we are still where we were not knowing What that Fate is What that Order or Power of Heaven is Whence that Law of Nature came or was given But if we look into this Book of God we find all these difficulties extricated we find the preservation of this Order in the Creatures to proceed from and depend upon the Wisdom and Power and Government of an infinite and intellectual Being who whiles his Creature for the most part moves according to the Rule
in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the Hope of Righteousness by Faith for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing noâ— uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth Faith Hope and Love c. But of these distinctly and how any or all of these do either unite or move us unto Union with our Saviour 1. Faith which is taken in a double sense 1. For that firm and sound Assent of the Mind to Divine Truths wrote by the Spirit of God and so differs little or nothing from supernatural Knowledge and thus Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of things not seen and hath for its Objects all Divine Truths And as Christ dwells in our Hearts by Faith thus taken Ephes 3.17 so other Truths dwell in the Heart by this Faith viz. objectively so that Faith thus taken is more properly an act upon the Soul than an act of it for in our Assent to any Truth our Soul is in truth passive the strength of the Conviction conquers the Soul. 2. For that motion of the Soul whereby it rests casts and adventures it self upon the Promises of God in Christ for Remission and Salvation and so differs from the former in these three respects 1. In the Latitude of its Object it is more restrained than the former 2. In the Order of its Being it is subsequent in the Order of Nature to the former and produced by it 3. In the Manner of its working In the work of supernatural Knowledge or Assent the Soul is passive in this though it be the work of God yet the Soul is more active As the Sun when it shines upon a solid Body doth cause a reflection of his own beaâ—s so when the Light of Grace falls upon the Heart in this special act of Faith as in that or Love there is a reflection from the Soul back to God. And therefore those Expressions of Faith in the Scripture import a motion in the Soul Christ comes into the Soul by his Light and Spirit and the Soul again comes to Christ Joh. 6.45 He that hath learned of the Father cometh unto me As Christ abides in the Heart by the former act of Faith so by this latter the Soul abides and incorporates into him and both these we have joyned together John 15.4 Abide in me and I in you Now this act of the Soul is the most natural result upon the true discovery of a Man 's own Condition God's promise and Christ's mediation unto the Soul. When a Man finds that the Sentence of Death is passed upon him that nevertheless God in infinite Love and Mercy hath sent his Son to be his Satisfaction and Righteousness and hath promised and proclaimed by him and in him and only by him Peace and Reconciliation and that without exception of any person though laden with never so much guilt and sin and without any difficult Conditions Whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 John 6.40 That he is appointed a Sacrifice by him whom we offended John 3.16 God so loved the world c. The Son of God and able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 The most genuine and natural motion of the Soul in such a condition and thus convinced is Trust Affiance and Divolution of the Soul upon this Promise of God in Christ And it is an observable thing how the Wise and Merciful Providence of God hath ordered all things so that we might be even necessitated to the right way of our Salvation and to cast our selves upon it All were concluded under a common guilt by the voluntary offence of Adam Rom. 5.12 And if we could derive our Being from another then we might escape the Guilt and that Guilt brought with it Death in the World both eternal and temporal bound upon us by irreversible Sentence of an omnipotent God. But cannot I by my future obedience emerit this guilt No. What thou doest for the future is but thy Duty and thou canst not out-act it But grant thy future obedience might satisfie for the guilt under which thou liest thou shalt have the Copy of that Rule which I required from thee and once enabled thee to perform Do this and live But be sure thou do it without turning to the right hand or the left with thy whole Might and Mind and Soul without the least aversion and that out of the meer Principle of Love and Duty and Obedience and thy future observance may expiate that original guilt yet our Condition had been still dâ—sperate because as the Obedience was impossible so the least miscarriage had been fatal for cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 So we find an universal Guilt and Curse gone over all and all this discovered to drive us to a Saviour Galat. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under a sin that the promise by the â—aith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe We find a righteous Law given to our Nature but as the Obedience is unsatisfactory for a past Guilt so the Observance is become impossible by reason of our Corruption whereby our disobedience is rather excited than abated Rom. 7.8 When the commandment came sin revived and I died And all this still to drive us to the necessity of a Saviour Rom. 8.12 What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Thus in the midst of all those difficulties a Saviour presents himself with the suffrage of God the attestation of Types and Prophecies with reconciliation of all the difficulties which perplexed our Inquiries with Ability to save to the uttermost with Mercy and Acceptation and Pardon and Righteousness and Happiness offered and proclaimed to all and that upon most unhazardable and easie terms only believe him and trust on him So then Faith is nothing else but that result of dependance upon and confidence in and adherence unto Christ which follows upon the sound Conviction of the Truth of God concerning him It is true the Faith of the Ancients differed much in the distinctness of its acting and object from the Faith which is now required as Abraham's Faith Caleb's Faith c. But in this they both agreed 1. That it was a Confidence and Trusting upon God in that which was revealed unto them by God. The Promises of a Son was made to Abraham and he rested upon God for the performance The Promise of Canaan to the Jews and Caleb and the believing Jews rested upon the Power and Truth of God to perform it So with us God hath promised Mercy
determine his being in as much as all things else are his productions and cannot have any causality upon him Secondly End is inconsistent with Eternity for that is a permanent and fixed indivisible and takes in all past present and to come without any difference of notion The present subsistence of the First Cause was the same numerical instant that he had a thousand years since So that End as well as Succession is but of those things that are measured by time not of an indivisible being To suppose him to have an end were to suppose him not ever to have been because past and present and to come are all indivisibly conjoyned in his duration This indivisibility of duration is proper only to the First Cause for nothing else can upon any sound ground be said to be of indivisible duration though it may be of a perpetual Suppose we the Being of an Angel or the Soul though admitted to be Everlasting yet that is rather a multiplyed extension of duration than any indivisible duration for of the First Cause I may say truly the instant of the duration that is now and that was a thousand years since or a thousand years after is the same but I do not think the same may be affirmed of any other thing whatsoever 1. because their essence is not indivisible and simple as is that of the First Cause for it is evident they are perfectible compounded of Act and Power not pure Acts 2. because some things might be affirmed of them in a time past which cannot now be affirmed of them as the creation continuance in the Body separation re-union c. 3. their being is dependent II. From this admission of a First Cause doth necessarily follow Immensity which includes three things 1. Exemption from Circumscription or bounds of his being There is a twofold exemption from Circumscription 1. That which ariseth from the disproportion between the thing that should circumscribe and be circumscribed thus a Spirit of what kind soever is not circumscribed nor is in any determinate place for that is proper to a Body that hath extension of parts yet though we cannot say It is here yet we are sure we cannot say It is every where There is 2. another exemption from circumscription which ariseth from Infinitude that it exceeds all place and circumscription Now that it is thus with the First Cause is evident for if he had a Being before any thing else nothing then could bound his Being if it should then he could not be the First Cause there being something else that had limited him which had a pre-existence to his causation and it is impossible for any thing to have a limited or bounded Being unless it were so limited or bounded by something without it That which is without a cause of his being must needs be without bounds of his being Neither could those effects which he after produced straiten the extent as I may call it of his Being or shut him out from them From whence follows 2. His Omnipresence not only vertually and potentially but essentially in and with all things though the manner of it be incomprehensible because a consequence of his Infinitude This is Exemption from Exclusion for it is not possibly imaginable that the production of new Effects should exclude or straiten that indivisible extent which that being had before those Effects were produced 3. Exemption from Succession or Division of Parts for otherwise he could not be Immense for whatsoever hath Succession of Parts as his Parts are measurable so is the whole and therefore cannot be actually Infinite in Extension as I may call it And this doth consequently exempt him from Materiality Succession of Parts being an affection of a material substance and therefore it is an indivisible Immensity What is said of the Soul may explain it Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte III. Hence it follows that the First Cause is Indivisible and that in a double opposition 1. In Opposition to Divisibility which is partly touched before and though this be common to all things that are incorporeal for Divisibility is an effect of Quantity yet it is most eminently to be affirmed of the First Cause 2. In Opposition to Multiplicity and this is the Vnity of the First Cause viz. that there is but one First Cause of all things for if there were two or more First Causes either all must be infinite in Being and consequently in Operation and that is impossible viz. that there should be two Infinites because one must of necessity bound and limit the other both in Being and Power 2. or else both must be finite and then of necessity each must have a Cause of his Being for what is it that should prescribe the bounds to these Beings unless the Cause of their Beings if so they can neither be the First Cause or 3. one must needs be Infinite and the other Finite and Subordinate and then of necessity those Finite Beings cannot be the First Causes but meerly Second Causes depending upon that Infinite Being both in their Essence and Operation for nothing can have limits of his being but what hath causes of his being which should prescribe those limits IV. From hence likewise follows that the First Cause is Ens Simplicissimum and excludes all Composition of what kind soever either of Power and Act of Substance and Accident or Matter and Form for every mixture doth of necessity suppose some pre-existing Cause to joyn these together and indeed the very membra componentia have in nature a pre-existence to the being so compounded and so the admission of any kind of Composition is inconsistent with a First Cause And from hence it is evident that all things that are affirmed concerning this First Cause are but improper and serve only as notions to render him unto our Understandings 2. From hence it also follows that whatsoever is affirmed of the First Cause is the same with his Essence and one the same with another though they are conceived by us under different notions and conceptions as for instance we see an effect of the First Cause which in case of a Man we derive from that habit in Man which we call Mercy and another effect which in Man we would conclude to come from such a quality or habit which we know by the name of Justice hence we stile the First Cause Merciful and Just yet in truth neither of these are proper for they signifie Qualities neither if they were proper were they distinct for they are the same one with another and both the same with his Essence otherwise it is impossible he should be Simple for should his Being and Attributes be several he should be compounded of Substance and Accident or should the same thing which we call Justice be the same with his Essence and not the same with his Mercy he must needs consist of several beings divided one from another the like for all the rest
be an Infinite and Vniversal Good. The former qualifications though each exclude something yet none excludes all Creatures from being the Supream End of the Soul Angels and Spirits are Immaterial Immortal Intellectual Good yet they want this one qualification without which it is impossible that there can be the Object wherein consists true Happiness The reason is this because nothing below an Infinite Good can satisfie the infinite motion of the Soul. The motion and comprehension of the Understanding though actually it doth not understand all things finite it may comprehend all finite things in the World which is clearly evidenced by Experience the most knowing Man in the World hath as much room for more Knowledge as he had before he knew any thing if a Man therefore knew all the finite things in the World yet were not the Understanding so filled but were there more to be known he would have room for it and consequently a desire to it Nothing then can fill and satiate the Understanding but Infiniteness yet we are not therefore to conclude that the Understanding is commensurate to the infinite nature of the First Being no that hath an actual Plenitude beyond the comprehension of the Understanding but the meaning is God hath placed in the Soul of Man an Understanding potentially infinite that cannot be filled with what is actually finite as all Creatures are And as the Motion of the Understanding is infinite and restless till it be filled with him that fills all in all so is the Motion of the Will nothing below an infinite Good can satisfie it And now as we have argued upward from the Capacity and Vastness of the Soul and its Faculties that nothing below an infinite Good can be its End so we must argue downward too The Great and Wise Creator who hath the disposition of all things to their Ends and who in his Infinite Wisdom hath put motions and capacities in all things conducing and fit for those Ends for which he hath ordained them hath appointed himself to be the End of his Immortal Creature and therefore hath put in the Soul a Capacity too large for any thing below himself and Motions restless in any thing but himself The Conclusion therefore is the Immortal Invisible Creator of all things that is infinite in Goodness and Truth hath been pleased to appoint himself to be the End of Man wherein consists his Supream Good. But it may be here considerable How God can be the adequate Object of Man's Felicity seeing Man consists of a Soul and Body united which was ordained to an End of Happiness as well as the Soul To omit the consideration of the Resurrection de qua infra I do conceive that God is the adequate Object of Man's Happiness in respect of his Compositum as well as singly of his Soul though in a different way of Communication The Communication of himself to the Soul is more immediate and sublime the Communication to the Body and Compositum mediate by Second Causes enabling and blessing their operations And I cannot question but in the first Creation when the Soul enjoyed God as the Object of her Happiness the whole Compositum did partake of that influence in communications of Happiness answerable to every exigence and degree of its being Sed de hoc infra Now in as much as the First Cause is the last End of Man and the only Object of his Happiness it remains to be inquired what this Happiness is or the Formal Reason of it for it is possible that there may be a Subject capable of Happiness and a Being that may be proportionable to that Capacity yet the Subject not truly happy The Beatitude therefore of the Soul consists in the Vnion of the Soul unto this Object of his Happiness and this Union presupposeth a double act 1. An act or Propension in the Soul moving it unto God as to its End and Perfection and as the Great Creator did appoint himself to be the End of this his rational Creature so he implanted in him a Propension and Motion in him to that End and that Propension and Motion is not a meer natural Inclination but ariseth from the fitness of those high Faculties of Understanding and Will for so excellent an Object In these he hath placed a Capacity or Receptibility in some measure of himself and as every Power is ordained in reference to something else that may actuate and perfect it and consequently moves after that Object whereunto it is ordained so this Receptibility which God hath placed in the Soul doth or at least naturally should move to that Object which alone can fill its vacuities and receptiveness 2. In as much as God is a Free Agent though he gave the Soul these Faculties yet so much is his Being and Perfection beyond the reach and attainment of any finite Being that this Motion of the Soul can never overtake his Happiness unless there be likewise an act of Condescension and Communion of himself to the Soul therefore there is necessarily required to the Happiness of the Soul a Communication by God unto the Soul And by this reciprocal act 1. of the Soul to God as the only perfection of it 2. of God to the Soul filling the desires thereof with himself this Union and Happiness is wrought This Communication by God is not of his Essence or Being for that is incommunicable and cannot be mingled with any Creature but as objective and for a fuller explication of this God is pleased to communicate himself to the Soul according to the nature of these great Faculties which he hath planted in it viz. the Understanding and the Will. And as without relation to both these it is impossible that Man should be truly happy so if both these be fully satisfied there cannot want any thing to compleat his Happiness because there is no other Faculty in the Soul which can receive any further portion of Happiness 1. The Communication of God to the Vnderstanding is that whereby he fills the same with the Knowledge and sight of himself Here the Understanding hath an object that satisfies and fills all the restless motions of it wherein he reads the satisfaction of all his doubts and inquities wherein though upon the first view it finds more than enough to fill its vastest comprehension yet every atome of its duration makes new discoveries of what iâ— thought it wanted not the Object being infinitely too large for all the successive actings of created Understanding to attain unto much less in one act an Object wherein the Understanding finds not only amplitude but unimaginable delight whiles it gazeth on an infinite Perfection an Object which by the same act fills and inlargeth the Faculty and Capacity of the Understanding wherein the Understanding though it enjoy his Object is not satiated but it rests in it is not tired with it Every Power in the enjoyment of its full and adequate Object hath complacency and acquiescence
Reason hath a privative opposition to the knowledge of them viz. an absence of a necessity of assenting not a positive opposition or a 〈…〉 by necessity of Reason to disassent to them 〈…〉 4. That though these Truths are 〈…〉 â—ry of Reason and beyond the 〈…〉 sent yet they carry 〈…〉 gr◠〈…〉 alt◠〈…〉 up◠〈…〉 p◠〈…〉 wi◠〈…〉 infra 〈…〉 Thus the Fall of Man 〈…〉 Truths unimaginable by Natu◠〈…〉 â—itness one to another and the Ju◠〈◊〉 Mercy of God bears witness to both The mâ—â—y of the Soul and the last Judgment bear witness each to other And as there is that mutual attestation by way of Congruity of one of these sublime Truths to another of the same nature so the Congruity that these Truths have to those Truths which rationally challenge an Assent from us That all things had a beginning from the First Cause is a Truth evident in Nature but in what way or by what manner is not possible to be known without a discovery How excellently doth that discovery of the manner of the Creation serve as I may say that Principle So again that Man being endued with a rational and immortal Soul was ordered by the First Cause to an immortal End by a rational Means prescribed by God may be concluded by rational inferences and deductions but what that Means was or clearly what that End was is not discoverable by natural Reason for it depends upon the Will of God. How admirably doth the Scripture discover that Means viz. the Law of God and that End the Vision and Fruition of God especially in the point of the Resurrection Again That the Violation of that Rule must incur a Guilt irreparable a loss of that End is rationally evident yet although that Man by that Guilt is justly deprivable of that End is clear yet that God should be disappointed in this End seems somewhat hard How clearly doth the Point of our Redemption by Christ a point inconceptible by Nature serve to extricate and untwist this difficulty gives God the Glory of his Justice and of his Mercy of his Wisdom and of his Creature Thus the subservience of a Truth more difficult to the exigence of a Truth that is more clear to Nature renders the former not only possible but probable 3. The third Evidence That this is the Word of God are those strange Predictions of most contingent Events fulfilled in their several times the Prediction in one Age and declared by one Instrument of God the fulfilling in another Age declared by another or seen by our selves This gives testimony both to the Truth and Divinity of the author or inspirer of it To omit those Predictions of Joseph concerning the removal out of Egypt The Prediction of the Jewish Captivity and the Restitution by Cyrus by Name The four Empires The destruction of Jerusalem take notice but of these two viz. The Prophecies of the coming of Christ describing his Nature Gen. 3.15 his Linage of Abraham Gen. 22.18 of Judah Gen. 49.10 of David Isa 11.1 the place of his Birth Micah 5.2 his Office Isa 61.1 his Mother Isa 7.14 his Death and the Ends of it Isa 53. the time of his Death Dan. 9.2 and divers other Circumstances fulfilled precisely in our Saviour 2. The Rejection of the Jews and Calling of the Gentiles to the Faith of Christ Deut. 31.29 and 32.21 Isa 11.10 Isa 42.6 Isa 49.6 this Prophecy fulfilled even in our own view yet upon such disadvantage of natural Reason as had not the same power effected it that at first declared it it could never have been effected considering 1. The utter Enmity between the Jews and Gentiles 2. The extream contrariety in Religion to it 3. The small and inconsiderable means of effecting that Conversion 4. The great Scorn and Sufferings of those that professed it 5. The visible impossibilities of making any temporal Advantages by it c. 4. The Consent and Harmony among the several parts of it When several Men in several Ages not brought up under the same Education write It is not possible to find Unity in their Tenets or Positions because their Spirits Judgments and Fancies are different but where so many several Authors writing or speaking at several times agree not only in matters dogmatical of sublime and difficult Natures but also in Predictions of future and contingent Events whereof it is impossible for humane Understanding to make a discovery without a superiour discovery made to it I must needs conclude one and the same Divine Spirit declared the same Truths to these several Men. 5. This Book alone and none besides but by derivation from it containeth matters of the most noble and useful nature The generality of all humane Learning do either in their Object or Use or both expire with this Life and none ever arrived to the discovery of the great and adequate End of Man. This is not only evident in these Arts or Sciences of Natural Philosophy the Mathematicks Physicks Politicks Laws c. all which at their highest are but only subservient to this Life but in those two great and noble Sciences that Speculative of Metaphysicks that other Practical of Moral Philosophy The former though it arrive to as high Truths as Nature can discover yet it rests in the knowing of them and in a meer Speculation and doth not shew wherein consists Man's true Happiness much less what is the way to attain it for the latter the most sublime piece of it is framed only for the Meridian of this Life both in the Use and End. Without all question the Great and Wise God did write in Man's Nature Habits exactly conducible to his internal Contentment and Felicity in reference to his living in this World as those which were of a higher Constitution and End as his communion with his Maker The wisest of Moral Philosophers though they have imperfectly copied out divers Positions of the former as Justice Temperance Contentedness Undervaluation of the World Patience yet they never arrived at the latter no Book in the World but this shews a Man the adequate End of his Being his Supream Good his Happiness nor directs the Means of acquiring it This doth not only inforce the nobleness and value of the Book but also the original of it for when I shall see a world of the most exact humane Wits turning every stone as it were within the reach of humane discovery and yet none of them all lighting upon this great Subject the way to eternal Happiness I must needs conclude That this discovery is of a higher extract than a meer humane invention and although when we have discovered that subject we begin to wonder that Mankind hath thus long roved and wasted its labour in those other impertinent inquiries and were so far from discovery of this Vnum Necessarium that they scarce so much as imagined there was any such Business yet we may justly forbear that wonder for this is a Path which the
he pleased but that were to infringe that Law which he at first planted in Voluntary Agents Here is the Wisdom of the great God his Will shall be effected yet Man's Will not forced Psal 110. Thy People shall be willing in the day of thy Power So that the Conclusion is The Wills of Men are ruled by the Counsel of God for the producing of his Ends yet without violation of Man's Freedom This is done by a rational Means And the Courses that God's Counsel useth to work the Will of Men to his Purposes are most usually these 1. By propounding Rational Objects or Motives conducing to the winning the Will to act those things that are conducible to the Purpose of God. In that one Instance concerning the hardening of Pharaoh's Heart God had a Purpose to be honoured upon Pharaoh in the miraculous delivery of his People it is propounded to him to let the People go it was a rational occasion for him to deny it for then he should lose their Work which was beneficial to him Moses to confirm his Embassage casts down his Rod it becomes a Serpent the Magicians that were of a contrary Counsel to Moses did the like this Object hardens the Heart of Pharaoh The like we may say concerning Perswasions Afflictions and those other Dispensations of the Divine Will brought upon a Man in ictu opportuno 2. By giving and administring Extraordinary Aids and Inlightenings strengthening the Faculties of the Soul. 3. By withdrawing the ordinary Supplies and concurrence of God's Assistance We are to know that as the Being of all things is from God so the very natural supportation of all things in their several Powers and Activities is from him and if he withdraw his Concurrence and Assistance our Wills will move freely but to other objects or in another manner than they did when assisted by him Now these we must not imagine to be Expedients or Helps pro re nata as it happens among us that when a thing beyond our expectation is gone beyond our mastery then to devise some helps to reclaim it or allay it But the whole Plat-form of all and every Circumstance was laid and set by the Purpose of God before the being of any thing Man shall work freely yet I will draw out that Freedom of his into these and these actions by this and that rational means supply or subduction of my aid of his Will shall not elude or defeat my Counsel nor yet the fulfilling of that Counsel violate the Freedom of that Will which I purpose to allow him 3. Contingent Effects which are such as arise from the conjuncture of several Causes not subordinate one to the other and this casual conjuncture of Causes denominates the Event neither Voluntary nor Necessary although it perchance arise from Causes of both or either Nature but these having no natural conjunction or connexion one with the other the Event that ariseth upon this conjuncture is Casual or Contingent And this Consideration leads us to the third thing wherein the Wisdom of this Counsel is eminent viz. 4. In ordering marshalling and managing of several Causes of several Natures wholly independent and unsubordinate one to another to the fulfilling of his own Eternal Infallible Counsel And this consists in the drawing out of the several activities and causations of things at such a time and such a distance as may be subservient to the Effect wherein though the Causes apart perhaps move simply according to their Nature yet the meddling and mingling of them together is a clear Evidence of the Unity and Wisdom of that Counsel by which they are governed In that admirable Piece of the Execution of God's Counsel concerning Joseph this is ligible almost in every pasâ—â—ge of it tâ—is the Purpose of God he shall be advanced for the preservation of his Father and Bretâ—â—â—n see but the last act of this Counsel preceding h◠〈…〉 He is â—â—mmitted to Prison by the a◠〈…〉 the chief Butler by the Command of 〈…〉 and Pharaâ—â— were several Voluntary Aâ—â—nts yet these acts of theirs drawn out upon seveâ—â—l grounds and independent one upon the other occâ—â—ion a meâ—ting between Joseph and the Butler in Prison and there they might have continued unacquainted till their deaths an Act of Divine Providence draws out an occasion for their Acquaintance the Butler is delivered and his Promise forgotten another occasion given by Pharaâ—h's Dream this had not been useful for Joseph unless communicated by Pharaâ—â— to the chief Butler this Communication draws out another Act of his viz. the remembrance of Josephâ— thus these several Voluntary Acts of Agents independent one upon another are drawn out to meet together in such a conjuncture of time as serves to produce that Event which if any one had failed could not have been effected The like is easily observable in all the great and predicted Changes in Commonwealths and Kingdoms how several Causes are without straining as it were interwoven and married together for the production of such a change And the like for the natural motions of the Elements in the constitution of mixt Bodies Though every Cause apart movâ—â— according to that Causality and course of Nature that is in him yet that Activity is drawn out in such a distance at such a time and with such Concurrences that makes appear at once the Efficacy and Wisdom of the Counsel of God that whiles every Cause moves according to his own Nature yet they are strangely mingled in the production of such an Effect that neither of them did foresee or intend but only the God that guided them 5. It is an Active and Irresistible Counsel This is evident by what hath been before observed viz. because it is the cause and measure of the being and power of every thing without it it is therefore impossible to be resisted because that strength that any thing hath it hath meerly by the efficacy of this Purpose of God. Although in the Divine Nature there is no difference in the Power or Act of his Understanding and Will yet for our Conceptions sake they are propounded under a different Notion his Purpose or Counsel is referred immediately to his Will and is not only a Foreknowledge of what shall be but hath an operative influence into the being and operations of all things His Prescience or Foreknowledge we conceive as an act of his Understanding by which he actually knows whatsoever shall be This Prescience is not an objective impression of the things themselves upon the Divine Understanding for that were to suppose a kind of Passibility which is incompetible to the Divine Perfection and supposeth a kind of Priority in Nature of the Object to the Power and a kind of dependance of the Act upon it But as all things have their Being by the Act of the Divine Will or Purpose so in that Purpose of his he sees the things purposed and it is impossible to sever the act of his Purpose from the act
Of the Supream End of Man. Page 61 CHAP. V. Of the Means of attaining the Supream End of Man. Page 80 CHAP. VI. Of the Credibility of the Sacred Scriptures Page 99 The CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS OF THE SECOND PART CHAP. I. OF the Existence and Attributes of God. Page 117 CHAP. II. Of the Acts and Works of God and 1. Of his Eternal Counsel Page 123 CHAP. III. Of the Execution of the Eternal Counsel of God in his Works of Creation and Providence Page 145 CHAP. IV. Of the Providence of God in special concerning Man in order to his supream End. Page 150 CHAP. V. Of the Restitution of Man by Christ Page 169 CHAP. VI. Predictions and Types of Christ Page 176 CHAP. VII Of the Efficacy of the Satisfaction of Christ and the Congruity of it to right Reason Page 195 CHAP. VIII Of the great Work of our Redemption What it is How effected and for whom Page 201 CHAP. IX Of the Means which God hath appointed to make this Sacrifice of Christ effectual viz. Vnion with Christ and how the same is wrought on God's part Page 231 CHAP. X. How our Vnion with Christ is wrought on Man's part viz. By Faith Hope and Love. Page 243 CHAP. XI Why or by what reason the act of Faith worketh our Vnion with Christ and so our Justification in the sight of God. Page 262 CHAP. XII The Effects of our Vnion with Christ Page 268 CHAP. XIII Concerning the putting off the Old Man and 1. What it is Page 276 CHAP. XIV How the Old Man is to be put off and 1. by Repentance Page 288 CHAP. XV. Of Mortification and the Means thereof and 1. Of Meditation Page 295 CHAP. XVI Meditation of the Vnreasonableness of the Dominion of Lust Page 302 CHAP. XVII Of Prayer Page 324 CHAP. XVIII Of Watchfulness and first in respect of God. Page 328 CHAP. XIX Of Watchfulness in respect of our Selves our Senses Words and Appetite Page 332 CHAP. XX. Of Watchfulness over our Affections and Passions of Love Anger and Fear Page 335 CHAP. XXI Of Watchfulness over our Hope Confidence and Joy. Page 343 CHAP. XXII Of Watchfulness over our Grief 1. In reference to God for Sin 2. In reference to Externals Page 353 CHAP. XXIII Of Watchfulness over our Will Conscience and Spirit Page 364 CHAP. XXIV Of the new Life or Sanctification and the necessity of it Page 379 CHAP. XXV Of the Means of Sanctification and 1. On God's part his Word and his Spirit Page 386 CHAP. XXVI Of the Means of Sanctification 2. On Man's part viz. Faith Love Fear Hope Page 392 CHAP. XXVII Of the Extent and Degrees of Sanctification Page 403 CHAP. XXVIII Of the Parts of Sanctification and 1. In reference to our Selves Sobriety Page 413 CHAP. XXIX Of Sanctification in reference to our Neighbour viz. Righteousness the Habit and Rule of it Page 435 CHAP. XXX Of the general Precepts of Righteousness given by Christ and 1. Loving our Neighbour as our self Page 447 CHAP. XXXI Of the second general Precept of Righteousness Doing as we would be done unto A Brief Astract of the Christian Religion Page 461 Considerations Seasonable at all Times for the Cleansing of the Heart and Life Page 475 A SUMMARY Of what is contain'd in this DISCOURSE OF THE Knowledge of GOD and of our Selves PART I. By the Light of NATURE Chap. I. Of the Attributes of God I. OF Knowledge what it is and how wrought Page 1 2 II. That there is a First Being and Cause of all things Page 4 What may thence be deduced concerning it Page 7 viz. 1. His Eternity Page 8 1. Without Beginning ibid. 2. Without Succession ib. 3. Without End. Page 9 2. His Immensity which includes His. 1. Exemption from Circumscription Page 10 2. Omnipresence ib. 3. Exemption from Succession or division of Parts Page 11 3. His Indivisibility in Opposition to 1. Divisibility ibid. 2. Multiplicity ib. 4. Simplicity Page 12 5. Perfection Page 13 Whence it followeth That he is 1. A most pure Act. Page 14 2. A substantial Act. ibid. 3. Ens vivens Page 15 4. An Intellectual Being Omniscient ib. 5. Ens Liberrimum Page 16 6. Ens summe Bonum ib. Whence arise these Conclusions 1. That he is perfectly happy Page 17 2. The supream End of all things Page 18 7. Most just Page 21 9. Immutable Page 24 Chap. II. His Acts Immanent and Emanant Page 25 1. Creation Page 27 28 2. Providence disposing all things to their several Ends. Page 31 In respect of 1. Himself Page 32 2. The things produced viz. ib. 1. Natural Page 33 2. Contingent Page 35 3. Voluntary Page 36 Ch. III. Of Man considerable in 1. What he hath in common with other inferiour Beings Page 40 2. His Eminence above them in his Soul 1. It s Substance which is 1. Immaterial Page 40 2. Immortal Page 41 2. Its Faculties Page 44 Page 1. The Vnderstanding which hath Page 1. A threefold Power 1. A Receptive or Passive Page 45 2. Retentive ib. 3. Active or discussive Page 46 Page 2. Several Acts and Habits as 1. Knowledge Page 46 2. Wisdom Page 48 3. Conscience Page 51 Page 2. The Will its motion in respect of 1. The Object Page 56 2. Principles Page 58 The immediate Cause of Man's miscarriage Page 1. His Vnderstanding Page 2. His Will. Chap. IV. The Supream End of Man I. What viz. a Good commensurate to the Soul and therefore 1. Immaterial Page 63 2. Immortal Page 64 3. Distinct from the Soul it self Page 65 4. A true and real Good. Page 66 5. An infinite and Vniversal Good. ibid. And therefore nothing but God himself Page 67 II. And how that may be that God can be the adequate Object of Man's Felicity Page 68 Chap. V. The Means to attain it 1. What naturally they were ib. 2. Whether still the same Page 84 1. The Defects in 1. His Vnderstanding ib. 2. His Will. Page 89 2. The Consequents Page 92 3. What now for his Restitution Page 93 1. Not any thing in Man or the Creature ib. 2. But by God 96. revealed in The Holy Scriptures 98. their Châ—p VI. 1. Credibility Page 99 2. Contents v. Part 2. OF THE Knowledge of God and of our Selves PART II. By the Sacred Scriptures Pag. 117. THE Contents of the Holy Scriptures concerning I. God 1. His Existence Page 117 2. His Nature and Attributes Page 118 3. Manner of Subsistence Page 122 4. Acts and Works Page 123 II. His Counsel which is 1. Eternal Page 123 2. Immutable Page 125 3. Free. Page 126 4. Wise ibid. Which is eminent in 1. Predetermining the means Page 127 2. So as they move according to their own Nature whether 1. Necessary Page 129 2. Voluntary Page 131 3. Contingent Page 133 3. Independent upon one another ib. 5. Irresistible Page 135 6. Vniversal ib. Two Difficulties How the Predetermination 1. Of the Acts of voluntary Agents can consist with the Liberty of
of his Attributes by the same Essence he is and he is what he is they are divided notions in us but in him neither divided from his being nor one from another And hence it likewise follows that though the emanant Actions that flow from this First Cause are different and represented unto us under different Notions as this is an act of Power this of Goodness this of Knowledge or Wisdom and upon these we frame notions to our selves whereby we represent that from whence these acts move by several Names or Attributes of Mercy Power Wisdom yet these proceed not in truth from several Qualities in the First Cause but from one simple absolute unqualified Being V. From this consideration that he is the First Cause and Being it follows that he is Ens Perfectissimum For that is Perfect to which nothing is wanting Now it is impossible that any thing can be wanting to the First Cause for there can be nothing besides him but what proceeds from him and that which proceeds from him cannot possibly either add any further degree of Perfection to him or include that Perfection which was not in the First Cause most eminently The First Cause had a pre-existence to all things else nothing then could be wanting to his Perfection because there was nothing else but himself The production of the Second Causes could not possibly include any greater Perfection than what was derived to them It is true in the working of Second Causes there may be a production of an Effect that may be more perfect in its kind than the Cause that immediately produced it as the production of a Worm out of putrefaction a Plant out of the Earth c. but there the Effect is not purely due to the Second Cause but to the Original Operation of the First Cause that did put that activity in the Second Causes to produce such Effects for every Second Cause worketh and moveth in the virtue and efficacy of the First Cause and hath its causality from it as well as its being without which though it had its being it is impossible it should be operative This Perfection in the First Cause is in truth inconceptible because impossible for humane Understanding to receive it without Divine Revelation and much more impossible to comprehend it because Infinite Therefore to help our selves herein we do and that rationally attribute to the First Being that manner of Being that we find most Perfect Therefore from this Perfection it follows 1. That the First Cause is a most pure Act without any mixture of Passibility or Power for if there were any Power as it signifies a susceptibility of some further act or impression that were an Imperfection for whatsoever is susceptible of some further act as all Power is it is impossible it should be perfect And from hence follows his Omnipotence for all inability to do any thing proceeds from the want of activity in the agent to overcome that resistance that it finds in the thing to be done Now in the First Cause there wants no activity for it is a most pure Act and were it not a most pure and Infinite Act it were impossible it should be the First Cause because that supposeth a priority of being in the Cause to the Effect and consequently requires an Infinite Activity in the First Cause because it must produce that which before was not at all and the motion between being and simply not being is infinite and therefore requires an infinite activity 2. From the consideration of this Perfection it follows that this First Being is a Substantial Act not an act that flows from another thing or depends upon another thing for then he could not be Ens Primum nor yet Ens Perfectissimum but it is an Act subsisting by it self 3. From this consideration of this Perfection it follows that he is Ens Vivens Life adds a degree of Perfection to the substance in which it is and the more Perfect the Life is the more perfect the Being hence the Sensitive Life is perfecter than the Vegetative and the Rational Life than the Sensitive and the Life of a Spirit than the Life of a Body Now this First Cause being an Infinite and Pure Act he hath an infinite perfect Life 4. From hence it follows that he is an Intellectual Being and as all his Works bespeak him so so doth this consideration of his Perfection necessarily evidence it for otherwise he should not be Perfect because an Intellectual Being is a more Perfect Being than that which is not so And this Understanding of the First Cause is commensurate to his Essence viz. Infinite and Eternal whereby he perfectly seeth himself and all things else that are or can be in one Eternal Indivisible act And from hence riseth the Omniscience of the First Cause without which he could not be Perfect for if any thing that is or might be were hid from him then by the discovery of that to him he would receive a degree of Perfection that he had not before And this Knowledge hath a threefold Object 1. His own Essence which requires an Infinite Knowledge to comprehend it because an Infinite Essence 2. All things that are for his Knowledge being Infinite it must necessarily extend to all other things 3. All things that may be because otherwise upon a further act of his Power that should be a new extension of his Knowledge which stands not with his Perfection And all this with one Eternal Indivisible act not by Succession not by mediate representation Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me 5. From hence it follows that he is Ens Liberrimum though he be most necessarily what he is yet he is free first for that the Freedom in agency is a degree of Perfection above a necessary agent and therefore this Liberty must of necessity be attributed to the First Cause Again it is impossible but that the First Cause must be a Free Agent for whatsoever works necessarily hath that necessity put upon it by somewhat without it which is inconsistent with the First Cause for if any thing else did put that necessity of working in him then that which imposeth that necessity was the First Cause Again every Necessary Agent omnibus aequè dispositis works uniformly now nothing was as equally disposed to become something from Eternity as at the first production of any thing the motion from not being to a being being the adequate effect of the First Cause therefore if there were not a Freedom in the First Cause the first Effect had been as ancient as the First Being Therefore we must necessarily affirm concerning the First Being that he is Ens Liberrimum Voluntarium and that according to his Will he worketh 6. From hence it follows that he is Ens summè Bonum Concerning this Goodness of God we affirm 1. That it is an Essential Goodness and his Goodness is not any thing divided from his Essence for that is
Perfection is held 4. a Rule or Law wherewith it is indued to regulate and direct and enable his Motions in the attaining of that Desire Thus we find in all Creatures below Man every thing moving to its own Preservation and Perfection by a strong Desire and constant Rule and enjoying a kind of Happiness in the Fruition of that End which the First Cause gave it as its Portion Nay in the very Dissolution of the Creature this is that which moves the ingredients thereof to part themselves or concur in the production of some third thing the thing corrupted struggling nevertheless as long as it can to keep it self entire Man though in his lower part he hath somewhat common with other especially sensible Creatures and therefore in that respect resembles them in his Motions Fruitions and Ends yet he hath something that is of a higher Constitution and consequently capable of a higher Perfection whereunto he moves as his End by a Law or Rule answerable to so great an End this latter being of a higher Frame yet answerable to that in other Creaturers which we call the Law of Nature Instinct or Natural Inclination The first thing therefore examinable is Wherein consists this Perfection of Man above other Creatures And questionless that is in his Soul which actuates animates and directs his Body and therefore before we can find out what is that End that is answerable to the degree of Man's being we must enquire what this Soul is wherein Man's Perfection consists whereby we shall be able to measure out what End will serve it The Soul of Man is considerable 1. In its absolute Essence we must conclude it to be an Immterial Immortal Substance This though it be a certain truth yet it is impossible naturally to demonstrate it the reason is because nothing can come to our Understandings demonstratively but either by our Senses or by Discourse and Reasons deduced from such things as so come to our Senses It is true the First Cause falls not under our Senses yet by necessary deduction from what falls under our Senses we necessarily conclude That he is and in some things What he is but the Being of the Soul as it is not conspicuous to the Sense so it is not deducible by Demonstration it is a Truth which is revealed at first supernaturally and afterwards traductively It is true that when we have the knowledge of it we may find many reasons to fortifie it divers difficulties thereby reconciled which without that admitted were almost impossible to be broken through which stings the most bold and adventurous sinner or Atheist with an invincible suspicion of the truth of this Truths yet I cannot find how merely by Natural Reason a Man can first find out the truth of this Proposition That the Soul is a Substance Immaterial We owe this truth in its original to Divine Revelation though when discovered the contribution of rectified Reason may conclude it at least probable But that being granted it doth of necessity follow that it is Immortal and Incorruptible for that which is Immaterial is actus simflex which excludes a composition of Matter and Form not Simflicissimus which excludes the composition ex Ente Essentia or ex Actu Potentia Now concerning those Reasons those Reasons that conduce to prove the Immortality and Spirituality of the Soul I. From the manner of its Operation 1. In the understanding which though it takes its rise from things that pass through the Sense yet it refines them from their Materiality concludes from them things which are not conveyed in by the Senses abstracts riseth to the consideration and apprehension of Spiritual Truths 2. In the Will which is carried to affect a Good that falls not within the reach of Sense controlls and commands the Sensual Appetite takes it off from those things which it pursues as naturally and violently as the hungry Lion doth his Prey and imposeth a Law of Reason upon them 3. From the Conscience that startles at the committing of a horrid Offence though with the greatest secrecy and outward security in the World. Sed de his Latius infra 2. From the Justice of God. It is questionless certain that as God put in the several Instincts and Propensions in the inferior Creatures whereby they are carried to their Ends so there was some Rule given to Man that was answerable to the several dimensions of those Abilities he had above other Creatures viz. Understanding and Will. And questionless as those Propensions are internal to the inferiour Creatures and do not only rule their Actions but also their Inclinations so this Law that was given to Man extended not only to his outward Actions but to those inward Motions of his Soul by the violation of the least part of which Law he incurred a Guilt which is an Obligation to Punishment according to the Penalty of this Law. Now it is impossible that this Justice should be executed considering especially the outward dispensation of things without the Object of this Justice survived his Body 3. From the Wisdom of God who surely gave not his Creature an Understanding that might arrive to know him a Will rationally and ex deliberatione to obey him and yet that all this should die with the Body But who is sufficient for these things Here is the first Eminence then of Man above other things that he carries about him an Immaterial and Immortal Soul which survives his Body and this necessarily concludes that the Good or End or Happiness answerable to this Perfection cannot be either Material or Mortal 1. Not Material because it holds not proportion with that Nature and Receptibility of the Soul. And from hence as it is most rational to conclude that any Object of the Sense can never be that Good that the Soul drives at so it is most evident by two Experiments 1. In the Weariness Nauseousness and unsatisfactoriness of them If a Man had all the Wisdom and Contrivance in the World and the most eager and intense desire after these Objects of Sense or the Sensual Appetite that can be imagined and all those Supplies and Opportunities that might conduce to the filling of these Desires yet in the midst of those Enjoyments he would find a Nauseousness a Satiety a Weariness And that is the reason that voluptuous Men travel from one Pleasure to another Which though they are exquisitely proportionable to that Sense they are framed for yet there is somewhat within which is still empty and craves who cannot relish nor tast those Enjoyments and cries after something that may be more sutable to it and the Man not knowing what that is travels from one thing to another to find somewhat to satisfie that Desire but cannot till he light upon that Good that is Immaterial 2. In that the more Spiritual the Object is the more satisfaction it breeds Hence the Soul doth in effect Spiritualize all that cometh into it by abstractions
and rational deductions And from hence among mere natural Men the Contemplative is the most happy because he fits his Soul with Food in some measure answerable to it And according to the levity or weight vanity or reality of the Object this Enjoyment is diversified 2. Not Mortal or perishing As the want of a proportion between the Immaterial nature of the Soul and Material Objects renders them unpleasing and unsatisfactory to the Soul so if there were a suitableness between their Natures yet if there were a suitableness in their Duration it wants that which is necessarily required to Happiness or an End answerable to the Soul and that upon a double Reason 1. In the Fruition The very Enjoyment of a suitable Good which I am sure must leave me miâ—gles fear and preapprehension of the loss of my present Enjoyment and consequently cannot possibly be Happiness And from hence likewise grows that Vexation which is dipt in the highest Enjoyments every Man in the very Enjoyments hath the present apprehension of an inevitable future loss of them especially in Death which doth take away that possibility of farther uniting of external Objects to Man. 2. In the Loss of it That cannot be a suitable End to an Immortal Being that must be severed from it The Conclusion therefore of this Consideration is that the Wise Maker of Man as he hath made him a living corporeal Creature did put into his hand such a Good as was common with other Creatures which he may justly enjoy so as he furnished him with an Immaterial Immortal Soul he did order that Soul to an End answerable to it self and above other Creatures viz. an Immaterial Immortal Good. And less than this cannot be an End answerable to the Wisdom of the Worker nor value of the Work. 2. Thus concerning the Nature of the Soul now concerning the Faculties whereby it is enabled to move to that End. And these have a threefold use 1. First they serve as fit Receptacles to entertain and be united unto that Good which is the proper End of the Soul and hold some proportion with that Object wherein the Happiness of the Soul consists 2. They serve as Receptacles to receive that Rule or Law which must conduce to that End and therefore they are likewise fitted for that 3. They serve as Helps and Instruments actively to move to that End. these three are seen likewise in inferiour Creatures 1. They have a Receptibility of that Good which is answerable to their Nature 2. A Receptibility of that Instinct which is their Law whereby they are directed to that Good 3. An Activity in them to carry them on to that Good according to that Rule or Propension The two great Affections that every Being is endued with is the Truth of its being and the Goodness of it answerable to those are the two great Faculties or Powers of the Soul the Understanding which is conversant about the former and the Will which is conversant about the latter Yet in the very same Faculties both these are conjoyned under their distinct Notions the Understanding taking into consideration the Truth of that which is propounded as Good and the Will being carried with a desire to the Knowledge of Truth as Good. Now concerning the Vnderstanding it hath a threefold Power 1. A Receptive or Passive Power whereby it takes in those Objects that are conveyed to it by an impression from without whether it be by the ordinary and natural way of the Sense or by a supernatural impression or by artificial means as Speech or Reading or other Signs And thus it receives not only simple Apprehensions but likewise Complex or Propositions Now without this receptive power it were impossible for any knowledge to be in the Soul because our Knowledge is not by Intuition as the Divine Knowledge is but by reception of the thing known into the Soul. And hence it is plain that all Knowledge is extrinsecal to the Soul for though it be apta nata to receive the species or object into it yet without such reception it cannot actually know it 2. A Retentive Power of the Object or Proposition received Without this it were impossible for the Discursive Power of the Understanding to hammer any thing out of it 3. An Active and Discursive Power whereby the Understanding is able to work upon those Objects thus received and retained and deduce Conclusions and Consequences from them So that though the foundation of this intellectual Motion be from those things that are impressed from without upon the Soul yet when they are once there this active and discursive part of the Understanding can draw millions of Conclusions create millions of Mixtures and entia rationis which present not themselves at first to the passive Understanding The Rule whereby this Active Power of the Understanding works is that we call Reason which is but a beam of the Divine Light a part of the Image of God in Man and of singular use in all his Actions if rightly used De hoc infra Now as all Receptive or Passive Powers are perfected by the receipt of the Object which may fill that vacuity which is in the Power and as all Powers are likewise perfected by Acts and Habits so are these Intellectual Powers they have their several Acts and Habits whereby they are perfected and moved 1. Knowledge and this I may call of two kinds 1. Passive Knowledge which answers to the Passive part of the Understanding Such is the Knowledge of Simple Apprehensions which come through the Senses and the Knowledge of Principles and these are of two kinds 1. Such as are per se nota and without any Argumentation are subscribed unto as many Principles in the Mathematicks 2. Such as are inscribed in the Heart of Man by the Maker of Man. Thus without all question at first God did indite his Law in the Heart of Man but this being not essential to the Soul though he retained his Intellectual Soul his Principles of this kind were obliterated and therefore it was the Mercy of God from time to time to inculcate them into Man's Posterity Sed de hoc infra 2. Active or Discursive Knowledge This bottoms it self upon those simple apprehensions that are in the Passive Understanding and upon those Principles that are in the Soul and by purifying things from their materiality abstracting rising from the Effect to the Cause and so downward by the aid of that Light and Rule of Reason which the God of Wisdom hath put into the Soul arrives to those Truths that lie in the Creature as Gold in the Stone beyond the reach of Sense to acquire Now in this respect the Understanding of Man is of vast and boundless Capacity and is capable to receive all the things in the World and nothing that is finite can satisfie it And hence it is that it moves from one thing to another to meet with somewhat that may satisfie the vast Comprehension of it It
Happiness viz. That no temporal thing no carnal pleasure no contemplation of the Creature is commensurate to the Nature and duration of the Soul which is the best part of Man and consequently is not nor can be his End. Yet this though it take him off from the wrong ways it sets him not in the right way but leaves him at a stand Therefore 2. The second Impediment is the Ignorance of the Object of this Happiness the want of the Knowledge of God which is the only Object of all our Happiness the proof and demonstration whereof ensues By what hath been before said it is evident 1. That by the Wise appointment of God every thing is ordained to an End to which it moves 2. That this End is such a Good as is answerable to the perfection of the Creature which moves to it a meer Natural Agent moves to a Natural End a Sensitive to a Sensible Good. 3. That the highest Perfection of the reasonable Creature consists in his reasonable Soul by which he is a large degree above the Sensitives Therefore to find out Wherein that Good consists that is the End of Man we must take measure of the Soul wherein consists Man's Perfection and When or Where we can find a Good commensurate to the Soul there and there only can we fix Man's Happiness 1. The Soul of Man is Immaterial and consequently that wherein consists Happiness cannot be Material This takes off all Sensible Objects as Pleasures Wealth Outward Pomp nay all the visible Creatures from being the Object of Man's Felicity It is as impossible to satisfie a Spirit with these things as it is to feed a Body with a Spirit they hold not a proportion or conformity one to another And from hence it is that in that small slender use that the Soul makes of the Creature as it cannot enter into the Soul till it be spiritualized in the species which are refined more and more the nearer they come to the Soul first in the Organ then in the Phantasie so neither can the Soul make use of them to any purpose being received till by abstraction it hath made them of the same nature with her self And from this disproportion between the Soul and those external Enjoyments do arise that Unsatisfactoriness that comes by them to the Soul for though they are useful to the Body and the outward Man and therefore they are desirable by the Soul it self in order to that End yet they reach not so far as the Soul their End falls short of it and hence it is that the Soul rests not in the enjoyment of them nay though it see not its proper End yet it finds a nauseum in the excess of these and therefore is restless and moves from one Pleasure to another And this is likewise the reason why every outward Pleasure is greater in the Expectation than in the Fruition because the Imagination of the Soul which is the Creature that the Soul forms can bring it nearer to the Soul than the Creature when it is enjoyed can come and this Imagination as it doth delude the Soul so it likewise takes off much of that Content which may be lawfully found and used in the Creature it makes the Pursuit too eager and Fruition flat in that it was over expected 2. The Soul of Man is consequently Immortal and its Felicity cannot therefore consist in that which cannot be co-extended with it Were there a Good imaginable that in its own nature held proportion with the value of the Soul and yet were perishable it were impossible that in the enjoyment of this Good could the Felicity of the Soul consist and that upon these Reasons 1. Because the Duration of the Soul is not divisible and successive taking it apart from the Body A temporary Felicity would be no Felicity It is true we measure out our time by parcels as years and weeks and days and hours and minutes but the Soul doth not so for though the duration thereof is not simply indivisible as in the Duration of Eternity yet it is far more swift than ours and so would be almost insensible of a temporary Good though of long continuance 2. Because the determination of that Good would consequently determine its Felicity so it can be no perfect Happiness 3. The very enjoyment of a most perfect Good that the Soul looks upon as determinable is in that very enjoyment mingled with a discontent grief and fear which are abundantly sufficient to rob the Soul of Felicity in that very enjoyment when the Soul shall be taken up with such sad preapprehensions and preexpectations as these I now enjoy a good answerable to my desires and that fills up every the least vacuity and craving of my Will yet I foresee that it is not lasting a time must come when I must lose it and it will die under my hand and yet my Immortal Being shall have continuance to all Eternity when my present Enjoyment shall serve but to increase my emptiness and misery with the sense of what I had and lost This Hand-writing upon the Wall is enough to turn the highest Enjoyment that is but temporary into bitterness in the very enjoyment much more those vain and thin Pleasures of this World that never came near the Soul but in a deceitful Imagination So then to the constitution of true Happiness for an immortal Substance there is re-required an immortal Good. 3. It must be a Good divided in its own Nature from the Soul. There can nothing be the End and Supream Good to it self but the First Cause which alone is self-sufficient And that is manifest in the Motions of the Soul for if it self were the End of it self it hath its End and consequently would cease to move but it is evident that the Soul is not a Pure Act but receptive of something distinct from it self to which it moves as to its End and Perfection 4. It must be a True and Real Good for since the Perfection of the Soul consists in these two active Faculties the Understanding whose Object is Truth and the Will and the principal use of every Faculty is in order to the Supream End of the Soul which is his Summum Bonum it is necessary that that which is pursued by the Will as Good should likewise be entertained by the Understanding as True and the highest Perfection of the Understanding is about the Truth of that which is the Supream Good because that Truth is the Supream Truth The Truth of this Goodness stands in opposition 1 to that which seems to be Good and is not at all such are meerly imaginary and phantastical Goods when the Soul works an imaginary Good and then works it self into the belief of it 2. to that which having a being seems to be good and is not 3. to that which though it be good seems to be the Supream Good but is not It must therefore be an Intellectual Real Good. 5. It must
Man in the Counsel of his Prescience but did not fore-appoint it in the Counsel of his Predetermination The rule of Nature is That whatsoever is while it is is necessarily The offence of Man though it proceeded from his Liberty yet when it was it was necessarily And because all things before they are are present with God as if they were and in the same degree as if they were therefore it was in the same degree of Fore-knowledge as if it had been necessary and consequently the superstruction of all that Counsel of God concerning Man after his Fall was not taken up pro re nata but was as ancient and as firm as Eternity it self We find the Fall of Man attributed to these Causes arising from these three 1. The Devil 2. Man. 3. God. 1. In the Devil a lapsed Angel and in respect of the Excellency of his Knowledge and spiritual Being had an advantage and could out-act the Reason of Man whose Soul acts organically and therefore though Man were created in the highest Perfection incident to his Nature yet he might be over-match'd with the power and subtilty of that Evil Angel. He fitted his Temptation to that which was most desirable viz. Knowledge and this Temptation took the greater impression because in the Command as hath been observed there was nothing but a pure Experiment of Man's Obedience and no rational incongruity of the eating of this Fruit more than another the strangeness of the Command and the severity of the Penalty made the suggested advantage that might come by this the more credible had he gone about to tempt Man to Blasphemy to murder his Wife or any other Sin the breach whereof had been equally penal to this the incongruity of such Acts to that natural Law which was connatural to him had made the Temptation fruitless but that envious Spirit did well know that the Obligation of every Law was under the same Penalty that this Law concerning the forbidden Fruit was most obnoxious to his Temptation that the the desire of Knowledge was the most prevalent Inclination in Man and so fits his Temptation exactly viz. That this command could have no other End or Reason than to fence Man from such an Advantage as might make him yet more like his Maker Ye shall be as gods knowing Good and Evil. And the very same way he took with the Second Adam his first Temptation was in such a thing that a Man would wonder where the Fault should be he was hungry and in a Wilderness without Bread Nature could not subsist and Bread could not be had there unless it were made yet our Saviour being better acquainted with the drift of his Temptation than was Eve rejected this as a Temptation to a distrust of the Providence of his Father 2. In Man. 1. The finitude of his Understanding Though he was created perfect yet he was created finite It could not match the Sophistry of an Angel. Hence this sin of Adam is called Beguiling and Deceiving The Serpent beguiled me 2. The Liberty of his Will which though he was created Innocent had nevertheless a Power to offend 3. The prevalence of his Sensual Appetite But this came not in till the field was almost lost the Temptation won upon the Understanding and Will before the subsidiary aid of the Sensual Appetite did or could come in the Beauty of the Fruit and its Goodness for Food was evident to Man before but it durst not assail the Command of God till the Understanding was deluded with an expectation of Wisdom 3. In God There was nothing positive but only putting of him wholly in his own Power Doubtless he was not ignorant of the design of the Serpent and could have as effectually supplanted his endeavour by his special Assistance or by an Angel as effectually have guarded Man from that Tree as he did that other Tree of Life afterwards from Man but he had made Man perfect he hath given him a Command under a severe Penalty and hath given him Power to obey it if he will believe his Creator and trust in him he is safe if he will not he may chuse but is lost See the Congruity and difference in the Temptation of the first and second Adam both tempted by the Devil that in a Paradise this in a Desart that in his Abundance tempted with Superfluity this in Want tempted with Necessity both had absolute Freedom of Will and both left to the strength of their own Power for the Angels came not to minister to Christ till the Devil had left him but the latter Adam in his Temptation will not stir a grain from the Command the scriptum est of God and the Devil leaves him the former lets go his strength the Command of his Creator the Lock of his strength and is taken and overcome And thus have we seen Man in his Glory and in his Ruine The former he did owe to the free Bounty and Goodness of God for how could that which had not a Being till it was given him deserve such a Being the latter he owes only to himself and how can he now expect a Reparation He hath contracted a Guilt which as his future Doing or Suffering cannot expiate for this Suffering is the necessary Consequence not the satisfaction of his Guilt and this Suffering must therefore be as everlasting as his Being because his Guilt is as everlasting as his Being his Doings were they perfect were but his Duty and therefore cannot expiate that Guilt which was contracted by the breach of that Duty but could it be available to expiate his Guilt yet as his Disobedience made him guilty so it made him unable to perform his Duty his Intellectuals are deprived of that Light which he hath abused and therefore lost his Will corrupted and embased in a subjection to his Sensual Appetite and this Disobedience accompanied with many Aggravations the least whereof might incense the very Goodness and Patience of his Creator beyond all hopes of Mercy and Atonement this Disobedience against God to whom he owed the most exact Obedience he added Ingratitude to his Disobedience he disobeyed that God from whom but even now he received his Being and such a Being he added Perverseness to his Ingratitude it was against such a Command which he might have kept and needed not to have broken he added Wantonness to his Perverseness he disobeyed when he had a stock of Blessedness as ample as his being was capable of he added Treason to his Wantonness believing the Voice of a Creature a Creature that but now had revolted from his God in a villainous imputation of God with Falsity and Envy And how after all this and infinitely more than this can he expect any thing from his injured God but what the severity of his Justice can inflict if he meets with frowardness in the Earth distemper in the Air surprizals and inundations in the Water rebellion in the Creatures a snare in his Table treachery
his Elect and under that Condition it was necessary that he should suffer for them It was the Love of the Father to accept of Christ to bear the sins of the People and it was his Justice that disclosed his Anger against Sin although his Son did but represent the sinner and yet the merit of this Suffering hath its strength from the free acceptation of his Father according to his Eternal Covenant with his Son. 3. From hence it follows that it is a Full and Perfect Satisfaction The reason is because the measure of the Satisfaction is the Acceptation of the offended God for it appears before that there can be no other Measure or Rule to him but his own Will though that be a most Just Will. Now that God was fully satisfied and pleased in Christ we have the Testimony of Angels Luke 2.14 On earth peace good will to men Of Christ John 17.4 when by way of Anticipation he saith I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do which he fully perfected when John 19.30 he said It is finished By the eternal Father by a voice from Heaven Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased By the Spirit of Truth Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that be sanctified And from the sufficiency of this satisfaction doth arise that assurance in which the Apostle glories Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect c. it is Christ that died And hence called the Author and Finisher of our Faith Heb. 12.2 4. It was an Vniversal Suffering The sin of Man had an universal Contagion both upon his Body and Soul and an universal Guilt and consequently an universal Curse went over both his Soul and Body In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death This death extended to his Body and Soul and the whole Compositum his very Life was mingled with Death both in Sense and Expectation And answerable to the extent of this Contagion Guilt and Curse was the extent of Christ's Satisfaction who was figured by the first Adam Rom. 5.14 His Life was mingled with Pain Isa 53. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in his Body he suffered a cursed and a painful Death and though the nailing to the Cross was not sufficient naturally to have made a separation of the Body and Soul no more than of the two Thieves yet he had those other Concurrences to his dissolution that they had not viz. the bearing of his Cross John 19.17 His scourging and Crown of Thorns Matt. 27.26 29. But especially the suffering of his Soul the very anticipation of this suffering made him even to shrink at it John 12.27 Now is my soul troubled what shall I say Father save me from this hour And this like the Trumpet upon Sinai waxed louder and louder till his very dissolution witness his affirmation In the Garden of Gethsemane Matth. 26.28 My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and that astonishing Cry of the Son of God upon the Cross Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sorrow and the suffering of his Soul in the Garden that was so strange as to cause a sweat of Blood had been enough without the interposition of any outward force to have caused his dissolution for it was a sorrow unto death had not God supported his Humane Nature with a supernatural aid Luk. 22.43 An angel from heaven strengthened him and when the Divine Dispensation withdrew that extraordinary supply he died Matth. 27.50 He cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost If it be asked What was the cause of this extremity of suffering in the Soul of Christ we say as he willingly took upon him to stand in our room to bear our sins and to become Sin for us so he felt the wrath of God against that sin which he by way of imputation did bear as he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 and God laid on him the iniquity of us all and as he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 so he trode the wine-press of his Fathers wrath for that time Isa 63.3 and was made a Curse for that Sin. The Guilt that he had was not inherent but imputed but the sense of that wrath of God against Sin was not imputed but real and inherent If it be inquired How could such a sense of the wrath of God be consistent with that union that was between his Natures in one Person such Knowledge is too wonderful for me Nevertheless thus far we may say that as in the highest extremity of the suffering of his Soul there was no interruption of that strict Union between the Humane and Divine Nature yet so it pleased God to order this great Work that the actual communication of the presence of the Divine Nature was to the sense of the Humane Nature eclipsed the Sun still remained in the Firmament yet the Light thereof Eclipsed at the time of the death of Christ Matth. 27.45 to shadow to us that interruption of Vision which was in our Redeemer that so his Soul might be made an Offering for Sin as well as his Body If it be inquired How it came to pass that a perpetual Punishment due to Man was expiated by a temporary suffering of Christ we answer Man's suffering must needs be perpetual because it could never be satisfactory Matth. 5.26 Thou shalt not come out till thou payest the uttermost farthing But Christ's suffering was satisfactory and the satisfaction being made the suffering could not continue 1. It was a Voluntary Suffering 2. An Innocent Suffering 3. A Suffering of the Son of God. 4. An Accepted Satisfaction by the offended God. 8. That Christ having suffered death did arise again from death the third day This was that which the Prophet David foretold of Christ Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soul in grave by Isa 53.10 When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin c. He shall prolong his days he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death prefigured by Jonah and so expounded by Christ himself Matth. 12.40 and predicted by himself Matth. 20.13 And the third day shall rise again attested by an Angel Matth. 28.6 He is risen as he said And this Truth was that which was the great Means of Conversion and therefore received the greatest opposition of Devils and Men Acts 2.24 Acts 4.10.33 Acts 5.30 And as it was the greatest Caution of the High Priest if it had been possible to falsifie the Prediction of Christ concerning his Resurrection Matth. 27.63 64. So this was the Truth that they most persecuted Acts 25.19 And being a Truth of that great concernment was most evidenced by the Evangelists and Apostles whose Business it was to be Witnesses of the Resurrection Acts 1.22 1 Cor. 15. per totum for by this he was
and Happiness to them that believe on Christ the Soul resteth and trusteth in the Truth and Power of God in Christ for it 2. In that the Faith of both had a termination in Christ though theirs more indistinctly and confusedly in respect that the same was not so clearly revealed unto them In that Promise to Abraham In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed wherein the Gospel was preached to Abraham Galat. 3.8 Abraham did see Christ and rejoyced John 8.56 And so for the rest of those ancient Fathers Rom. 10.4 They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ Now the Effects of Faith are of two kinds 1. In reference to God our Justification God having of his free Goodness exhibited the Righteousness of Christ and his Satisfaction to be theirs that shall truly know it and rest upon it Rom. Chap. 3 4 5 c. Galat. 2.16 2. In reference to us Peace with God Rom. 5.1 In him that is our Peace-maker Humility because the Righteousness whereby we are justified is none of ours Rom. 3.27 Where then is boasting worketh by Love Galat. 5.6 2. Hope is but modally or objectively distinguished from Faith for the same spiritual Life which is wrought in the Soul and brings Light with it when it looks upon Christ with Dependance and Recumbency is called Faith when it looks upon the fulfilling of these Promises yet unfulfilled with Expectation and Assurance is called Hope They are but the actings of the same spiritual Life with diversity only 〈◊〉 to the diversity of Objects Hence they are many times taken for the same thing Heb. 11. 〈◊〉 the substance of things hoped for Ephes 4.4 One Hâ—pe of your calling Galat. 5.5 We through the Spirit wait for the Hope of righteousness by Faith Rom. 8.24 We are saved by Hope 1 Pet. 1.4 Begotten again unto a lively Hope And the Fruit of this Hope must of necessity be Joy Reâ—â—ycing in Hope Rom. 12.12 And such a Joy as at once takes off the vexation sorrow and anxiety that the greatest Affliction in this world can afford and likewise the fixing of the Soul with over much Delight upon any thing that it here enjoys because it looks beyond both upon a Recompence of Reward that allays the bitterness of the greatest Affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Heb. 11. and allays the Delight of the greatest temporal Enjoyment Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Purifies the Heart John 3.3 He that hath this hope purgeth himself even as he is pure that is winds up his Heart to such a Condition as is suitable to his Expectation 3. Love This is that first and great Commandment Deut. 6.5 Matth. 22.37 And therefore is the fulfilling of the whole Law Galat. 5.14 Rom. 13.8 Because it puts the only true and active Principle in the Heart which carries him to all true Obedience It is the highest Grace 1 Cor. 13.13 And that wherein consisâ—ed the Perfection of Humane and Angelical Nature because it was not only his Duty but his Happiness It was his Duty because the chiefest Good deserved his chiefest Love even out of a Principle of Nature and his Happiness because in this regular motion of the Creature to his Creator God was pleased to exibit himself to his Creature and according to the measure of his Love was the measure of his Fruition And in the Restitution of his Creature God is pleased to restore this quality to the Soul Gal. 5.22 The first fruit of the Spirit is Love 2 Tim. 1.7 The Spirit of Love 1 Tim. 1.14 with Faith and Love 2 Thes 2.10 receiving the Love of the Truth Ephes 4.15 speaking the truth in Love Jude 21. keep your selves in the Love of God now this Love is wrought by a double means 1. By the Knowledge of God as he is the Best and Universal Good and therefore it is impossible that there can be the true Knowledge of God but there must be the true Love of God 1 John 4.8 He that loveth not knoweth not God And this is an Act grounded upon a rational Judgment which even by the very Law and Rule of Nature teacheth us to value and esteem that most which is the greatest Good. 2. By the Knowledge of the Love of God to us The absolute Goodness of God deserves our Love but the communication of his Goodness to his Creature commands it The former doth most immediately work upon our Judgment and so is a love of Apprehension the latter upon our Wills and so is a love of Affection and yet both upon right Reason for as the Law of Nature teacheth us to love the Chiefest Good so the same Law of Nature teacheth us to love those most that do us most Good and consequently love us most Now when God by his Spirit sheds abroad his Love into the Heart and we once come to know the Love of Christ passing Knowledge Ephes 3.19 The Soul even out of a natural ingenuity being rescued by the Spirit of God from that malignity that sin and corruption had wrought in it cannot chuse but return to God again that hath done so much for so undeserving a Creature And therefore this was the great Wisdom and Goodness of God in sending Christ in the Flesh to die for us when we were Enemies and in revealing that Goodness of his therein that in a way proportionable to the conception and operation of our Souls we might understand the greatness of his Love to us 1 John 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God Ephes 2.4 But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead c. God commandeth his love to us c. All which being brought to a Soul that hath life in him must needs work Love to God again 1 John 4.19 We love him becâ—use he loved us first As it is the Love of God that gives us Power to love him for it is the first cause of our Happiness and consequently of our Love to God wherein consists our Happiness so it is the immediate cause of our Love to him When the Soul is convinced of so much Love from so great a God to so poor a Creature in very Ingenuity and Gratitude it cannot chuse but return an humble and hearty Love to his Creator again Methinks the Soul in the contemplation of the Goodness and Love of God might bespeak it self to this effect So immense and infinite is the Goodness and Beauty of thy God that were thy Being possible to be independent upon him he would deserve the most boundless and infinite motion of thy Love unto him But here is yet farther infinitude added to an infinitude he gave thee thy Being from nothing which was an infinite act of his Goodness and Power unto thee and doth and may justly challenge the highest tribute of Love
and Glory that thy Being can return unto him But had he given thee a simple Being thy Debt had not been so great so have the most unaccomplisht Creatures But thy Being was dressed with an Intellectual Nature and that Nature furnished with Fruition of Happiness filling the uttermost extent of its Capacity and that Happiness guarded with such a Law as was suitable to that Nature full of Beauty and Order in the obedience whereof thou didst at once perform thy Duty and improve thy Felicity But thou rejectedst all this and becamest a Rebel to thy God and a ruine to thy self and thou hast improved thy ruine and rebellion by a voluntary rejection of thy Duty and thy Happiness until this hour And what canst thou expect but a just return of an infinite Vengeance from an omnipotent injured Creator for so ungrateful a breach of an infinite Obligation But consider what thy Lord hath done for thee for all this and stay thy self and wonder Thy Lord proclaims Return thou backsliding Soul and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 12. Hadst thou offended thine Equal for thy offended Equal to have solicited thy Reconciliation had deserved Acceptation and Love But for the infinite God to whom thou owest an infinite Duty and hast violated it who is able to annihilate thee and can receive no advantage by thy return to solicit it with an offer of a Reprieve nay of a Pardon But here 's not all our Deliverance from the Wrath of God is wonder enough Let me now be as one of my Father's hired Servants No there is more yet 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love he is content to accept of us as Sons But what must the Price be of so great a Change or who shall give it Thy Lord whom thou hast thus injured hath paid the Price of thy Redemption and such a Price as Heaven and Earth may wonder at the mention of it The Son of God lays down his Life for his Rebels Pardon and Assumption into a Partnership with him in his own Kingdom But thou art not for all this at the End of thy Debt this Price is rendred to thee upon easie terms Believe and live and this Life accompanied with infinite Advantages even Communion with this Creator But yet like the murmuring Israelite thou wilt die with the Manna between thy Teeth unless God who hath given thee such a Price of thy Redemption enable thee to receive him He sends his Spirit into thy Heart with Light and Life to strive with thy unbelieving Heart and to subdue it and to cleanse thy filthy and polluted Heart to bring Redemption into thy Heart and to solicite perswade importune thy Heart to receive him for thy own Good. What remains then but that thou shouldest ever admire that Love that hath done all this for thee that thou shouldest in all humility and humble reverence return love to thy Lord and magnifie his condescension that he is pleased to accept the Love of his poor Creature that thou study not to grieve the Spirit of that God that hath taken this pains and care with thee for thy good not to crucifie again that Christ that hath died for thee that thou labour to find out what is the Will of thy Lord and to obey it and to walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us Ephes 5.2 Now according to the measure of the true Knowledge of God and of his Love in Christ is the measure of our Love to him and as that Knowledge is the immediate cause of its production so it must of necessity be the measure of its Degree And although both the knowledge of his Absolute Goodness which excites the love of Desire and the knowledge of his Benefactoriness to us which increaseth the love of Gratitude or Benevolence are mingled in every Soul that truly loves God yet according to the different degrees of the discoveries of either to the Soul so are the different manners of their working upon the Soul. The knowledge of the Perfection and Absolute Goodness of God is more suitable to an Angelical Nature and therefore produceth an high Angelical and Intellectual Love for this Love begins with the Judgment But because our Nature as it now stands as it arrives seldom to such a Knowledge so seldom to such a Love and that Love which comes into the Heart meerly upon such Contemplations is weak mingled with Servile Fear unactive because the Knowledge like the Sun in a Cloud shines dim and the Heat proves waterish and weak But the knowledge of the Goodness of God to us as it draws the Goodness of God nearer to us in Sense so it strikes more our Affections which God hath placed in us for this End. And this was the motive of Love and consequently of Obedience both under the Law and under the Gospel though the Expressions of that Love under the Law had more in them of Sense and under the Gospel more of Spirit Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days c. Luk. 7.47 Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Christ argues from the measure of her Love to the measure of God's Goodness to her and her Sense of it And here we have the true Principle of all true Obedience to God The bare External act of any thing commanded by God unless it move from a Heart or Principle conformable to the Will of God is no Obedience for all External actions taking them divided from the Will they are all of one kind and nature The very same act proceeding from a Soul differently principled may be an act of Obedience viz. when proceeding from an obedient loving Heart an act of compulsion when proceeding from a bare servile Heart a bruitish act when it proceeds from a Soul not moved with any Consideration and an act of malignity against God when done out of a malicious cunning design Some even preached the Gospel for Envy Phil. 1.16 So then as the Knowledge of the Goodness and Love of God to us is the immediate cause of the return of our Love to God so this love of the Soul unto God is the true and immediate Principle of all true Obedience unto God Now these are the genuine and natural Effects of Love to God 1. It makes a Man to make God and his Honour and Glory the highest and supream End of all his actions And this must needs be so in Reason For as the great End of all the works of God are his own Honour so where there is true Love to God it cannot chuse but make the Soul value that most which God most values As he must needs be convinced in his Judgment that that which God makes his End must needs be the chief End of the Creatures actions so where this Affection is it
the love of God in Christ continuing towards us notwithstanding our many Injuries This fills the Heart with Sorrow and Wonder and puts the Soul upon a flat Resolution never to sin against so great Love. This was that sorrow that pricked the Jews to the heart and brought in Repentance for remission of sins Acts 2.37 38. Acts 3.19 that Sorrow that worketh Repentance unto Salvation 2 Cor. 2.10 And though sometimes Christ appear unto the Soul without a Baptist and the light of the Love of God discovers the irregularity and filthiness of our former ways and tempers yet the usual method of his Grace and Providence is to baptize with the Baptism of John and after with the Baptism of Christ Acts 19.5 The love of God being most naturally welcome and operative when the Soul hath before taken a just survey of his Condition without the sight of that love But his ways are unsearchable and past finding out And this Evangelical Repentance viz. our sorrow for our past Offences and our purpose of better Obedience is not only the Act of our first Conversion unto God but is to be our continual Exercise there is a continual adherence of our flesh and sin unto us and notwithstanding the bent and frame of the Soul be changed yet there are continual Renewed Offences which though God is pleased not to impute yet as they are contrary to that Life in the Soul and therefore will be opposed by that Life so they are still naturally our own and therefore must and will be repented of and sorrowed for For a Soul once truly affected with the Love of God would willingly have his whole Man and Life and Thoughts and World conformable to the Will of God and therefore every strugling cannot chuse but cause sorrow and gather up the strength of the Soul for the future against it For the sins of the very Members of Christ though by his Righteousness and Satisfaction they have lost their power to condemn being his by imputation yet they are sins still and therefore objects of our opposition and ours in reality and therefore objects of our Sorrow and Repentance and by how much the more they have our consent by so much the more they are sins and ours And as it is the Power and Grace of Christ that subdues the Dominion and prevailing of Sin so this Grace doth work by setting the operations and affections of the Soul against it especially in our Sorrow and Repentance Our Repentance after Conversion is nothing else but the strugling of the Life of Christ to work out that poyson of sin which is contrary unto it and doth weaken it and would destroy it 1 John 3.9 For his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. CHAP. XV. Of Mortification and the Means thereof and 1. Of Meditation 2. WHERE Repentance ends viz. in the purpose of forsaking the ways of Death there Mortification begins and is nothing else but the Execution of those Purposes of the Soul which are wrought by Repentance by the use of all such Means as may for the future weaken the power of sin in the Soul. This is that which our Saviour calls putting out the right Eye and cutting off the right Hand crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Galat. 5.24 Mortifying the earthly Members Colos 3.5 Denying a Man's self taking up the Cross Matt. 16.24 Dying daily 1 Cor. 15.31 The World crucified to a Man and a Man to the World Galat. 6.14 Putting off the body of the sins of the Flesh Colos 2.11 The body of sin destroyed Rom. 6.6 Mortification therefore is nothing else but the daily practice of opposition against Sin especially such as we are most inclined to and that by such Means as are reasonably conducing to it These Means according to the several tempers both spiritual and natural are more or less effectual I shall divide them into these degrees 1. Supernatural Helps 2. Moral or Rational Helps 3. Natural Helps 1. Supernatural They are rational Means but fixt upon supernatural objects and discovered by supernatural Light for it will most clearly appear that these very Helps which we call Supernatural are most rationally effectual against it Meditation and Prayer 1. Meditation and serious and deep Consideration of the Word of God and the Truths therein revealed but especially of these ensuing 1. A deep Meditation of the Love of God whom I must needs offend in every sin And this is the most powerful Consideration in the World to mortifie any sin and that is the reason why where there is the truest and highest manifestation of the Love of God to the Soul there is the highest Purity because there is the highest Preservative against Sin for it must needs be clear that where there is the highest manifestation of the Love of God to the Soul there is the highest Love again to God and consequently the most absolute dominion over sin for as the Love of God is the cause of our Love to him 1 John 4.19 so according to the measure of the manifestation of the Love of God to the Soul is the measure of the Love of the Soul to God again and consequently of the hatred of sin And he that often and deeply considers of the Love of God must even rationally improve the sense of it to his Soul and consequently his Love to God again and his abhorrence of Sin. When a Man shall take such Considerations as these into him God hath commanded me to abstain from this or that sin whereunto it may be my Nature my Custom my Temptation inclines me The competition is between my Pleasure my Pride my Profit and my Lord he that gave me a Being he that hath given me all the Comforts of my Being he that might justly have taken me away to judgment in the midst of my sin but he hath spared me and waited upon me that he might though I were righteous make me a vessel of misery he that hath invited perswaded intreated me to return unto him for my own good that when I would not I could not return unto him hath sent his Son to fetch me to redeem me with the greatest Price that ever the World heard of Behold what manner of love 1 John 3.1 And shall I can I make so ill a return to entertain his Enemy the only object of his displeasure that will ruine me before my Lord that hath infinitely out-done my highest speculations for me Certainly the sense of the Love of God is either not at all or not awake when any Man considerately commits any the least sin against his Conscience It were no less than for a Man to return despight against the Love of God and as much as in us lies to disappoint his very End and Purpose in sending of Christ who therefore gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works 2. A serious
let thy words be few seasonable considerate true 4. Set a Watch upon thine Appetite it is of it self natural and consequently good but the distemper of our Nature hath put it out of its place and consequently out of its bounds Suspect thy Appetite and keep it under with Rules of Moderation put a Knife to thy Throat Prov. 23.2 look not upon the Wine when it gives its colour in the Cup Prov. 23.31 love not sleep Prov 20.13 and with Rules of Seasonableness the wise Man tells us every thing is beautiful in its time Eccles 3.11 because it is then in that order which God hath appointed for it the same Action that may be but tolerable and indifferent in one time may be necessary in another and sinful in another Isaiah 22.12 13. In that day did the Lord call for weeping and mourning and behold slaving of oxen surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die 2 Sam. 11.11 The Ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents c. shall I then go down to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife Regulate thy Reason by the Word and Counsel of God and discipline thy Appetite with thy Reason observe its motions and check them Rather deny it a lawful than countenance it in but a disputable Liberty CHAP. XX. Of Watchfulnes over our Affections and Passions of Love Anger and Fear 5. SET a Watch upon thine Affections and Passions Thy Affections are by thy natural corruption become inordinate Affections they are easily misplaced and more easily over-acted Take heed to thy Love according to the order or disorder of this Affection are all thy other Affections tempered See therefore that it be rightly placed Dispence thy Love in measures proportionable to the worth of the Object Nothing can challenge thy intensest Love but the intensest Good and that God that requires thy Heart is a jealous God let not out the whole Current of thy Affections upon any thing below him Lawful Pleasures natural Relations Conveniences in the World a Man 's own self may be Objects of a moderate and subordinate Love But when they take up the whole compass of our Love our Love becomes our Sin Matth. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me 1 John 2.15 If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 2 Tim. 3.2 4. lovers of themselves and lovers of Pleasures ranked amongst the worst of Men. When the Affection of thy Soul is moving after any thing before thou give it leave examine the Object whether worthy of any measure of thy Love and if so yet let it not go without a farther debate Consider the measure of Good that is in the Object and weigh out its proportion of Love answerable to the measure of its Good But rest not there neither remember it is but a subordinate a derivative Good as well as a measurable Good bestow not that measure of thy Love upon it absolutely but subordinately catechise thy Love with this Question Whether if thy Creator requires thee to hate that Object to forgo it to forsake it thou canst be better content to call home thy Affection than to let it rest where it is By this time and by this means thy Love will be under a discipline and a rule and the Precipitancy of this Affection beyond its due Proportion allayed and moderated And remember always it is the impotency of our Condition and the great cause of the disorders in our Souls and Lives that we are contented to give our Affections leave upon the first apprehension to pursue their Objects without debate lest we should interrupt the expectation of Contentment by a clear discovery of the unworthiness and vanity of the Object and the ill consequences of immoderation in the pursuit thus we are contented to deceive our selves with the Felicity of false Expectation rather than by pre-consideration to avoid a real Inconvenience or Disappointment Take heed to thine Anger Be angry but sin not Ephes 4.26 keep it not too long nor act it too far lest it prove Hatred Revenge Oppression Order thy Anger so that it may be rather an act of thy Judgment than of thy Perturbation If thou art provoked by an Injury before thou give a Commission to this Passion propose to thy self the Question which God asked Jonah Jonah 4.9 Dost thou well to he angry weigh well the Cause and remember thou art partial to thy self and apt to construe that for a just Provocation which it may be was none or deserved Suspect thy Judgment of Partiality put thy self in the others Condition before thou judgest remember that he that doth thee the Injury is but God's Instrument 2 Sam. 16 10. Because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David who then shall say Wherefore hast thou done so It may be his Injury is God's Justice and then thy Anger against the Instrument is Rebellion or at best it may be his Experiment of thy Patience and then thy Anger is Disobedience Remember the just occasions of Anger thou hast given to thy Creator and yet his Patience to thee and shouldest thou not have compassion on thy fellow servant Matth. 18.33 Remember thy Redeemer that bought thee with the Sacrifice of his Soul hath given thee another Precept Matth. 5.44 Love your Enemies and another Example who when he was reviled reviled not again and canst thou deny the denial of Passion for his sake Remember thy gentleness will more advantage thee than thy anger it may be he will be conquered with thy Patience and revenge thy Quarrel against himself with his Repentance but if not there is a God of Vengeance can and will do it Rom. 12.19 When a Man takes up the Office of his Judge he injures both the Judge and Party and in stead of doing himself right he makes himself guilty Again if thou doest well to be angry dost thou well to be angry so much or so long The Wise Man tells us That Anger resteth in the bosom of Fools Set a Watch therefore over thy Anger let it be just and moderate and let not the Sun go down on thy wrath Ephes 4.26 Set a Watch upon thy Fear There is nothing deserves thy fear of Reverence but thy Creator nâ— thy fear of Aversion but thy Sin If thy Peace he made with him thou art above the Fear of any thing below him objects of Terror shall not come near thee the Beasts of the Field shall be at peace with thee or if they are not they shall not hurt thee The terriblest things in the World are therefore terrible because they end in Death the King of Terrors And when thy Peace is made with thy Lord thou hast a double Security against them 1. Because they are in the hands of his Power and Wisdom and they cannot exceed their Commission that he gives them he can if it please him dissipate whole Armies of
Terrors by the least word of his Power 2. But if their Commission extend to thy very Life yet the Son of God hath taken away that sting that terror that is in Death hath by his own Death sanctified Death unto thee and made it a door unto a better Life so that Death though in it self terrible and bitter yet this Tree being himself cast into this bitter Water Exod. 15.25 hath sweetned them and as he hath taken away the Venome of it by destroying that Serpent that had the power of it Heb. 2.14 so he hath made it though not for it self yet in respect of him that stands on the other side of this Gulf with Immortality and Glory in his hand desirable Phil. 1.23 Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better It is true thou art pursued with an Army of Egyptians of Sins and of Miseries and when thou comest to the Shore thou seest a raging and a bloody Sea But remember thou hast an Angel even the Angel of the Covenant that hath gone before and yet goes with thee and turns this Sea into a Passage of Ease and Safety and though of either side the Waves may affright thy Sense they shall not hurt thee and remember that though thy Passage may be difficult and troublesome yet thou hast not as once the Israelites a Wilderness behind it but a Canaan Therefore in all Objects or Occurrences of Terror first look inward and see how the case stands between thy God and thy Conscience indeed if there remain a Guilt unwashed by the Blood of Christ a secret sin entertained and not repented of thou hast cause to fear because thy Lord is angry But if thou keep thy daily Watch upon thy Soul and thy Life if thou find the presence of thy Saviour in thy Soul and thy Heart though of it self a sinful Heart yet cleansed and delivered from the power of any evil way an honest Heart acted by the love of God in Christ thou mayest then look above them and having thine Eye fixed upon the Lord of Events walk quietly and untroubled through the midst of those dangers that do incompass thee It is true that in the great Concussions of the World God expects a suitable affection even from the most innocent Heart an affection of Reverence and awe of his Presence and working Jeremiah 10.7 Who would not fear thee O king of nations But the fear of an honest Heart is the fear of Reverence not of Consternation a Fear mingled with Love a Fear mingled with Faith and confidence a Fear mingled with Praise and Glorifying God a Fear terminated in the great Lord that works not in the Instrument not in the immediate Object of Terror a Fear mingled with Comfort not over-run with distraction When therefore thou meetest with Objects of Fear first learn to distinguish their kinds some there are that come as it were from the immediate hand of God such are Famine Pestilence Wars Fires Inundations Earthquakes and the like entertain them with Reverence to the great and Just and Powerful hand of God not slightly or saucily or presumptuously yet without consternation or distraction of Mind carry up thy Soul above the Objects to the Hand that guides them make him thy Dependance and his Will the measure of thine own under them use all warrantable means with Dependance upon his Power and Submission to his Will to avoid them The wise Man seeth the Plague and hideth himself Prov. 22.3 Prov. 27.12 If thou escape the danger bless the God that hath preserved thee if thou fall in them yet still bless the God that hath not left thee and value ten thousand Deaths with his Presence and Light upon thy Soul above the most sublimated Life without it Again there are some Objects of Fear which though they are guided and mastered by the hand of God yet they are immediately the works of Men and so less terrible such are wrought by the power oppression cruelty and malice of Men these may and ought to be entertained with more resolution and confidence That one Example may serve for all when the power and injustice of Man shall meet with an unarmed and weak innocence Dan. 3.16 O Nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand O king But if not be it known unto thee O king we will not serve thy Gods As if they should have said It is true thou art a King and where the word of a King is there is Power and to magnifie thy self and thy Glory in the face of thy Kingdom thou hast taken up this publick Resolution of the Dedication of thine Idol and this thy Purpose is stablished by a Decree a Mischief framed by a Law and this Decree armed with Death and a cruel and terrible Death we know we cross thy proud and impious Will impatient of the seeming neglect of thy Power by three poor despised Hebrews in the midst of thy Glory and People we see fury and rage enough in thy countenance to devour us before the Furnace be hot we see thy Courtiers adding fewel to thy rage and thy Instruments greedily catching after the least Warrant from thee for our Execution and we are compassed with Flesh and Blood which cannot but shrink at the preapprehension of this inevitable and terrible dissolution yet for all this know that we have learned to tutor our Fear not to fear a Man that shall die and the Son of Man that shall be made as Grass Isa 51.11 we have learned that the fear of Man bringeth a snare but he that trusteth in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 29.25 And therefore we are not much perplexed what Answer to return to these thy Commands and Threats we serve that God in whose hand thou art as the Ax or the Saw in his hand that shaketh it in whose hand thy Breath is and he can command away thy Breath and then what becomes of thy Word that Lord in whose hand thy Heart is and he can turn it as the River of Water and can set thy Command against thy Decree that God in whose hands are the issues of death and who can arm an inconsiderable Occurrence to divert and frustrate thy Purpose in whose hands are all the Powers of Heaven and Earth and can correct and controll that Fire which thou intendest for the execution of thy Fury And this is the God whom we serve and hath made a Covenant with us to preserve us in the Fire and we are no less confident of his Love and of his Truth than of his Wisdom and Power to deliver us he hath taught us that he is a present help in trouble Psal 46.1 that if we call upon him in the day of trouble he will deliver us Psal 50.15 Psalm 91.15 that in the Fire he will be with us and
in the Water and it shall not come near us Therefore O King we value not thy Power nor thy Rage for our Dependance is above them But this is not all If that great God whom we serve deliver us over to the swing of thy Rage we have learnt yet a higher Lesson our Faith and Experience hath taught us to trust in him and our Love hath taught us to obey him though he seem to disappoint our trust by delivering us unto thy Fury yet we will not forget to obey him he hath taught us to make his Will the measure and rule of ours both in what we suffer and in what we do we owe our Lives to him and thou art but his Instrument to take them from us when his Will commands our Lives we shall resign them with Patience but now his Glory requires them we will give them up with Chearfulness If we cannot live but upon so dear a rate as to offend our bountiful God farewell Life with Guilt and welcome Death with Innocence Know O King that the Presence and Love of our God hath taught us how to fear to offend yet to dare to die CHAP. XXI Of Watchfulness over our Hope Confidence and Joy. SET a Watch upon thy Hope and Confidence Place it aright and remember thou art essentially depending upon the great God and upon him only and all things below him have no more worth or strength in them than he derives to them and when they take up his place he ever breaks and disappoints them Yet such is the Atheism the Pride and Folly of our Hearts that it will place its confidence in any thing rather than where it should The distemper of this as of all other our Affections hath its beginning in the Blindness of our Judgments the want of a deep and practical knowledge of God and from hence our Confidences and Hopes fix and rest oftentimes in most vain and deceitful Objects Have therefore a watch and a corrective upon the motion of thy Soul towards any thing which thou hast wherein there seems any though never so little strength thy evil Heart will make it thy confidence and so a snare unto thee Is thy Wealth increased take heed to thy Confidence thy evil Heart will make it all one to have and to trust in Riches it will make thy Gold thy Confidence Job 31.24 to trust in thy Wealth and boast thy self in the multitude of thy Riches Psal 49.6 Psal 52.7 to make it thy strong Tower Prov. 10.15 to set thy Heart upon them Psal 62.10 And then this thy Confidence shall be thy Fall Prov. 11.28 Hast thou a fair Success in Externals look to thy Confidence though thou seest thy Creator in them yet thy evil Heart will make thee at least share thy Confidence between thy God and the Creature to conclude with Job that now thou shalt die in thy Nest Job 29.18 to behold the Sun when it shineth Job 31.26 to conclude with David that thou shalt never be moved Psal 30.6 and the jealous yet merciful God will hide his face and thou art troubled thereby to unsaâ—n thy Confidence upon the Creature and to teach thee to fix it upon thy Maker only Hast thou a Friend a Prince or Nation Confederate take heed to thy Confidence thou art apt to make this thy Friend thy Confidence Psal 41.9 my own familiar Friend in whom I trusted to put Confidence in this Prince Psal 118.9 Psal 146.3 And then he makes Egypt a broken Reed Isa 36.6 Ezek. 29.6 sends a Vengeance to pursue and overtake thee in the midst of thy Confederates Jer. 42.16 pours contempt upon thy Confidence Job 12.21 Hast thou Munitions Provisions for War take heed to thy Confidence thou wilt be ready to make thy Chariots and thy Horsemen thy Trust Psal 20.7 the multitude of thine Host thy Salvation Psal 33.16 â—o vaunt that thou art mighty and strong for the War Jer. 48.14 and then the great Lord rejects thy Confidences and writes disappointment upon them all Jer. â— 37 Hast thou a strong Body a dexterous deep foreseeing preventing Wit thy Counsels and Purposes followed with Successes answerable to thy Mind take â—eed to thy Confidence thy Heart is blind and cannot see rather than the next Causes not observing the great and fast Mover who manageth all things and will swell thee up into a self-confidence and dependance But suppose thy Confidence be right set â—eâ—ect of the Object yet see that it be grounded upon right Principles otherwise thy Confidence may be thy Presumption Examine thy very Recumbence upon thy Creator The immediate ground of any Confidence in God is a perswasion of his Power and a perswasion of his Love and in both these the corruption of our Nature doth discover it self and is fit to be considered 1. Touching his Power the Errors of our Trust on either hand in the Defect and in the Excess 1. Diffidence in his Power Psal 78.19 Can God furnish a table in the wilderness therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth Upon any Extremity though never so black and inevitable look upon the Power of God as able most easily to over-match it 2. Resting upon his Power without consulting with his Will This is Presumption when a Man without any Commission from his Maker shall entertain any desperate attempt This is for a vain Man to go about to ingage the Power of the great God against himself his Will his Purity his Wisdom his Purpose See thou hast a Commission from the Will of thy Creator for what thou art about and if so then cast thy self upon his Power when thou art acting by his Command doubt not but thou shalt act by his Power 2. Touching his Love this likewise yields Errors on both hands 1. In the defect principally when a Soul that doubts not of his Power because she knows him nor hath cause to doubt of his Love because her Peace is made yet such black storms and pre-apprehensions of dangers are gathered round about her that she cannot see the Love or Care of God towards her Psal 77.9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he shut up his tender mercies 2. In the Excess an ungrounded Presumption of the Love and Favour of God and herein are divers Mistakes 1. When a Man shall argue a personal and special Love of God unto him from External Successes and Events It is true that the Mercy and Love of God is over all his Works and the Happiness of Externals is the fruit of the Love of God as to his Creature but not a sufficient evidence of that special Love of God as to his Child they are fruits of his Bounty not always evidences of his Favour Experience of former Mercies in external successes and deliverances may and ought to strengthen that Confidence which is well grounded upon the Love of God Psal 77.11 1 Sam. 17.37 But they are not always infallible arguments of that Love When Blessings in Externals
Uncertainties in the midst of any external Trouble without a Refuge and so full of Despair As we cannot have Confidence to go to our offended God by our Prayers so it makes him withdraw and hide himself from them a continual disquietness and heaviness of Spirit mingles and winds it self into all our thoughts even in our pursuits of diversions from it the same aspect that is between God and us is between our own Conscience and us The Light of his Countenance is able to give Life and Comfort and Serenity to the Soul in the midst of all the Losses and Pains and Deaths in the World and the want of that Light makes the most happy external Condition to be dark and disconsolate And all this Good I lose by a transient unprofitable Sin a Sin that I might have avoided and therefore a Loss that I might have avoided a Loss that comes not to me by my necessity but by my foolish choice I will therefore sit down and mourn in secret for that Comfort and Light that I have thus foolishly sinned away and measure out my sorrows and tears proportionable in some degree to that Loss I have sustained The time was when it pleased the great God to let his Presence and the Light of his Countenance to shine into my Soul and when I could with Comfort and Confidence upon any occasion go to him and present my wants my desires my acknowledgements unto him and he that sits in Heaven was pleased to accept and entertain them at the hands of his Creature But now that Influence of his hath met with a filthy and backsliding Heart and is weary of it and hath withdrawn it self as justly it may and my Prayers are laden with my Guilt and cannot get up to him and he hides himself I have regarded Iniquity in my Heart and as he hath said so I find he will not hear my Prayers But though he will not hear my Prayers yet he will not neglect my Tears A broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise O Lord though I have thus trifled away my Peace and my Comfort and have destroyed my self yet in thee is my help As I will not rest in my Sin so neither will I rest in my Grief but will never give my self nor thee rest till thou hast been pleased in the Blood of thy Son to wash away my Guilt and restore unto me thy Presence and Peace again And when I have recovered this Loss I will by the assistance of that good Spirit of thine learn by this my sin to revenge my self upon my sin to value the Mercy and Goodness of my Creator that hath yet once more intrusted into my hands the Life and Comfort which I had so lately lost to value the necessity as well as the Love of my Saviour that hath been pleased by a reapplication of his own Blood to wash me again after my late Relapse to value the kindness of the Pure and Blessed Spirit that though by my sin I made him weary and forsake that polluted chamber of my Heart yet is pleased to return and cleanse and take up again that Room from which I had so unworthily excluded him I will learn to prise that Peace and Comfort which once I had and valued not but lost it for an unprofitable perishing Sin I will strive to sence my Heart with renewed Covenants and Resolutions of more watchfulness over my self that I return not again to Folly I will sit down and bless the Mercy Goodness Patience Bounty of God that hath not left me in that Condition which I could neither endure nor remove and study to return a Heart and Life in some measure answerable to so great Love and Goodness And when I have done all O Lord Jesus let that Eternal Covenant between thee and the Father that thou shouldest give Eternal Life to as many as he hath given thee John 17.2 that Power and Promise of thine that none shall pluck me out of thy hands John 10.28 that Union with thee that thou art pleased to give to as many as believe on thee John 15.4 5. that Spirit of thine which by that Union with thee conveys Life and Influence to the smallest branch in thee preserve and support me in all my Purposes and Resolutions in all my Frailties and Temptations For without thee I can do nothing 2. In reference to outward Objects and occasions of Sorrow as loss of Friends Wealth Reputation Health Life it self have a guard upon this Passion 1. Look upon them as the Fruits and Effects of thy Sin and so let them carry thy Grief beyond the immediate object to the meritorious cause of them This is the sting of all Affliction the Plague in thy Heart is the Core and Fountain of the Plague of thy Externals And when thou hast humbled thy Soul before thy Creator and gotten the Blood of thy Saviour to wash thy Conscience thy Affliction shall be removed or thy Soul enabled with chearfulness and comfort to bear it 2. Labour to find out the Voice of the Rod the Mind of thy Creator for if thou diligently observe it there is not a dispensation of Divine Providence but it brings a message with it to thy Soul. Look into thy Heart it may be there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee Joshua 7.13 and this Affliction bids thee be up and removing it It may be thy Heart was leaning too much upon that very Blessing wherein thou findest thy Cross or Affliction which robbed thy Maker of some of the Love and Duty thou owest to him It may be thy Heart was grown dead and careless in thy applications to thy Creator secure and resting in thy temporal Enjoyment and he hath sent his Messenger to awake thee It may be thou hast had a dull and heavy Ear that would not listen or could not perceive God speaking once yea twice unto thee in a still voice Job 33.14 and now he hath sent an instruction with a louder voice It may be thou begannest too much to set up thy rest here to place thy Confidence in the things of this World to be overtaken with the delight in them to overâ—expect them and he hath sent a disappointment into thy Counsels a Worm into thy Gourd a Moth into thy Store a Canker into thy Bag a Distemper into thy Body to shew thee the vanity of thy Dependances to make thee let go thy hold of that which may fall upon and hurt thee but cannot secure thee to make the look upward to quicken thy Life of Faith by shaking thy Life of Sense It may be thou wert growing presumptuous in the Goodness of God Saucy in thy Carriage towards him insolent towards him opinionative of thy self And he hath sent this searching Medicine to fallow and purge these disorderly and dangerous Humours But gâ—ant that upon all thy search thou findest that for a long time thou hast kept a Watch over thy Heart that thou