to be esteemed 2 Kin. â—0 16. were indeed rather Fury than Zeal and proceeded more from his own fiery spirits than from that spirit of Fire or spirit of burning which is of God Isa 4. 4. But commonly this forc'd devotion is jejune and dry void of zeal and warmth drives on heavily in pursuit of the God of Israel as Pharaoh did in pursuit of the Israel of God when his Chariot wheels were taken off Exod. 14. Gods drawing the Soul from within as a principle doth indeed cause that soul to run after him Cant. 1. 4. but you know the motion of those things that are drawn by exâ—ernal force is commonly heavy slow and languid 2. This forc'd Relâ—gion is penurious and needy Something the slavish spirited Christian must do to appease an angry God or to allay a storming conscience as I hâ—nâ—ed before but it shall be as little as may be He is ready to gâ—ndge God so much of his time and strength and to find fault that Sabbaths come so thick and last so long and that duties are to be performed sâ— often so he is described by the Prophet Amoâ— 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be past and the new Moon gone But yet I will not deny but that this kind of Religion may be very liberal and expensive too and run out much into the branches of external duties as is the manner of many trees that bear no fâ—uit for so did the base spirit of the Pharisees whose often fasting and long praying is recorded by our Saviour in the Gospel but not with approbation Therefore these are not the things by which you must take measure and make estimate of your Religion But in the great things of the Law in the grand duties of mortification self denyal and resignation here this forc'd Religion is alwayes very stingy and penurious In the duties that do nearly touch upon their beloved lâ—sts they will be as strict with God as may be they will break with him for a small matter God must have no more than his due as they blasphemously phrase it in their hearts with the slothful servant in the Gospel Lo there thou hast that is thine self and the world sure may be allowed the rest They will not part with all for Christ Matth. 19. 22. is it not a little one let me escape thither and take up my abode there said Lot Gen. 19. They will not give up themselves eâ—tirely unto God the Lord pardon me in this one thing cryes Naaman so they in this or that let God hold me excused The slavish spirited Christian is never more shrunk up within himself than when he is to converse with God indeed But the Godly soul is never freer larger gladder than when he doth most intimately and familiarly converse with God The Soul that is Free as to liberty is free also as to liberality and expences and thatnot only in external but internal and spiritual obedience and complyance with the will of God he gives himself wholly up to God knows no interest of his own keeps no reserve for himself or for the Creature 3. This forc'd Religion is uneven as depending upon inconstant causes As land-floods that have no spring within themselves vary their motions are swift and slow high and low according as they are supplyed with rain even so these mens motions in Religion depending upon Fancy for the most part than which nothing is more fickle and flitting have no constancy nor consistency in them I know indeed that the spirits of the best men cannot alwayes keep one pace nor their lives be alwayes of one piece but yet they are never willingly quite out of the call or compass of Religion But this I also toucht upon formerly Therefore 4. The forc'd Religion is not permanent The Meteors I will down again and be choakt in the earth whence they arose Take away the weight and the motion ceases take away 〈◊〉 and Joash â—lands 〈◊〉 yeâ—â— runs backwards But this I shall speak more unto when I come to speak of the last property of Religion viz. its performance CHAP. IV. The active and vigorous nature of true Religion proved by many Scriptural phrases of the most powerful importance more particularly explained in three things First In the Soulâ— continual care and study to be good Secondly In its care to do good Thirdly In its powerful and incessant longings after the most full enjoyment of God In all which the causes and reasons of the same are either more obsâ—urely intimated or openly assigned I Come now to the Second property of true Religion which is to be found in this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 springing up or leaping up wherein the Activity and vigorousuass of it is described Religion though it be compared to water yet is no standing pool of water but a well of water springing up And here the proposition that I shall go upon is that True Religion is active and vigorous It is no lazy and languid thing but full of life and power so I find it every where described in Scripture by things that are most active lively vigorous operative spreading powerful and sometimes even by motion it self As sin is in Scripture described by death and darkness which are a cessation and privation of life and light and motion so Religion is described by life which is active and vigorous by an Angelical life which is spiritual and powerful yea a divine life Ephes 4. 18. which is as I may say most lively and vivacious Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. and the production of this new nature in the Soul is called a quickning Ephes 2. 1. and the reception of it a passing from death unto life Joâ— 5. 24. Again as sin and wickedness is described by flesh which is sluggish and unactive so this holy principle in the soul is called spirit Gal. 5. 17. the spirit lusâ—eth against the flesh yea the spirit of power 2 Tim. 1. 6. and the spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death How can the power and activity of any principle be more commended than by saying it is life and the spirit of life and the law of the spirit of life in the soul which hath made me sometimes to apply those words of the Prophet as a description of every godly soul Mic. 3. 8. I am full of power and might by the spirit of the Lord. Yea further the holy Apostle seems to describe a godly principle in the soul by activity and motion itself Phil. 3. 12 13 14. where he gives this excellent character of himself and this lively description of his religious disposition as if it were nothing else but activity and fervour I follow after that I may apprehend I forget those things that are behind and reach forth unto those things that are before I press towards the mark c. It were too much
flows is subject to augmentations and diminutions which I know no sober person that denies But I think the history of their lapses if we take it altogether hath a very favourable aspect upon the doctrine of perseverance yea for ought I know one great design of God in penning those relations might be to confirm this very doctrine by giving us so express and ample an account of their Repentance and Recovery that we are indeed to believe they were strengthned by their falls so far were their falls from proving mortal to them one would think that if ever the habits of grace should be utterly suffocated and extinct if ever they should languish even unto death it should be under the power of such contrary Acts as David and Peter committed and especially Solomon whose acts for ought I can see were as foul and also often repeated which is the likeliest thing that I know to destroy gracious habits I know there are instances given of good Joash Hymeneus Alexander Demas utterly falling from that gracious state wherein sometimes they had been But it did never yet appear to me beyond contradiction that ever they were any of them in such a state Joash is put amongst the number of hypocrites by some that have rifled his story And for ought that can evidently appear to the contrary Demas might be no better Most is pleaded for Hymentus and Alexander who put away a good conscience and made shipwrack of faith 1 Tim. 19. 20. But it do's not yet appear that the faith which they made shipwrack of was any more than the profession or doctrine of the true faith yea rather it doth appear that it was no more Neither do's it at all appear that they ever had that good conscience which they are said in our translation to have put away which may as fully be rendred rejected for that we find to be the most common use of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arceo prohibeo resisto renitor repello to reject repell or thrust away from one I am not confident that this apostasie of theirs was total neither supposing it to be an Apostasie for however their faith was shipwrackt possibly some plank or other of it might be left And who dare say that it was final The Apostle doth not that I perceive give them up for lost but executes discipline upon them as it seems for their receovery of which one might think by the following words that he had some hopes that they may learn not blaspheme In short then as to these two men I conceive that good canscience which they put away they never had and the faith which they had was not that good faith And as to the other two that were named and indeed as to all other instances of the like nature I suppose we may give this general answer that either they did but seem to stand er they did but seem to fall the former perhaps was the case of Joash and the latter of Demas When ever you observe therefore the backslidings of any seeming Christians take heed of concluding rashly against the perseverance of Saints but rather inferr with the holy Apostle 1 Joh. 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us had they been of us they would no doubt have continued with us Which words if they be meant only of a communion in doctrine and profession so as to conclude against the separation of such as are indeed in such a communion then we may argue the more strongly a minore ad majus against the final apostasie of any that are in a higher and more excellent communion As for those texts of Scripture that seem to suppose a mans falling away from grace and turning from righteousness I conceive a fair answer may be given unto them by distinguishing of righteousness and so it may be granted that many men have turned away from and utterly made shipwrack of their legal righteousness consisting in an external conformity to the letter of the precepts of the law void of the supernatural and divine principle it is indeed the common lot of these men that spring up thus fairly and yet have no root to wither away Mat. 13. 6. Luk. 8. 6. And yet on the other hand it abides an everlasting maxime of truth whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. If there be any texts that seem to speak of apostatizing from an Evangelical righteousness a righteousness of faith and so cannot well be salved by this distinction as that in Heb. 10. 38. and some others it must be considered that suppositions are made of things impossible as well as possible yea and that even in the Scriptures themselves as some have observed from Gal. 1. 8. 1 Cor. 15. 14. which texts do not at all imply what they suppose I know indeed that external salvation is ordinarily entailed upon perseverance and so is promised to us in Scripture as it were conditionally Joh 8. 31. If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed Col. 1. 21 22 23. you hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight If ye continue in the faith and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel c. To the same purpose are those words He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved and Rev. 2. 26. He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give c. All which do strongly imply that there is no salvation but in a way of perseverance and the words being laid down thus conditionally especially the words first quoted are indeed cautionary and quickning to the dull and sluggish minds of men but do not necessarily imply any uncertainty or doubtfulness in the thing itself no more than those words of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1. 10. compared with the latter end of the 12. verse where he doth affirm them to be establisht in the truth and yet at the same time doth speak to them by way of caution and encouragement There are many Texts that do seem to suppose the apostasie of men in a state of regeneration but not one that doth assert it that ever I could yet find but they are almost without number that to my apprehension do more than seem to assert the contrary viz. their final perseverance of which perseverance we have also through the goodness of God thousands of instances but no man could ever yet produce one instance of the contrary but by meer conjecture which conjectures let them that make them see that they be neither over-charitable towards men or uncharitable towards God Wherefore I do conclude that what is said concerning Heaven and Hell in the Parable as to one branch of it is true of grace
highest pitch of perfection unto which the New Creature is continually growing up which the Apostle Paul hath exprest with as much grand eloquence as words are able to magnifie if calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ This is that unbounded Ocean which this living fountain by so many incessantissues and unwearied streamings perpetually endeavours to empty it self into or rather to embosom it self in Now what this is we must confess with the Apostle John and indeed we have more reason to make such a confession than he had that it doth not yet appear viz. neither fully nor distinctly But yet since I am thus cast upon the contemplation of it it will be a pertinent piece of pleasure a little to enquire into it and though it surpass the power and skill of all created comprehensions to take the just dimensions and faithfully give in the height and depth and length and breadth of it yet we may essay to walk about this heavenly Jerusalem as the Psalmist speaks of the earthly and tell the Towers thereof mark her Walls consider her Palaces that we may tell it to the generation following First Then we will consider Eternal Life in the most proper notion of it as it implies the essential happiness of the soul and so it is no other than the souls pure perfect and establisht state By a state I do designedly disparage that grosser notion of a place as that which scarce deserves to enter into the description of such a glory or at best will obtain but a very low room there By purity I do purposely explode that carnal ease rest immunity affluence of senfual delights accommodated only to the animal life which last the Mahumetans and the former too many profest Christians and the Jews almost generally do dream of and judge Heaven to be By perfection I do distinguish it from the best state which the best men upon earth can possibly be in So then I take Eternal Life in the primary and most proper notion of it to be full and perfect and everlasting enjoyment of God communion with him and a most blissful conformity of all the powers and faculties of the soul to that eternal goodness truth and love as far as it is or may become capable of the communications of the divinity This life was at the highest rate imaginable purchased by our ever blessed Lord and Saviour in the daies of his flesh and here in the Text promised to every believing soul Now in as much as we are ignorant both of the present capacity of our own faculties how large they are and much more ignorant how much more large and ample they may be made on purpose to receive the more rich and plentiful communications of the divine life and image therefore can we not comprehend neither the transcendent life happiness and glory nor that degree of sanctity and blessedness which the believing soul may be advanced unto in another world The Popish Schoolmen do nicely dispute about the sight of God and the love of God to wit in whether of these the formal blessedness of the soul consisteth ill separating those whom God hath so firmly joyned together as if it were possible that either a blind love or a jejune and unaffectionate speculation could render a soul entirely happy But it is much safer to say that the happiness and eternal life of the soul standeth in the possession or fruition of God and this doth necessarily import the proper perfection of every faculty Nothing can be the formal happiness of a spirit that is either iuferiour or extrinsecal to it it must be something divine and that wrought into the very nature and temper of it I doubt not to affirm that if the soul of man were possibly advanced so as to receive adoration or divine power yet if it were in the mean time void of divine dispositions and a god-like nature it were far from being glorified and made happy as to its capacity What health is to the body that is holiness to the soul which happily the Apostle alludes to when he speaks of the spirit of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. Secondly There is another notion of Eternal Life which some contend for by which they mean not barely the essential happiness of the soul but that with the addition of many suitable and glorious circumstances the essential happiness of the soul as it is attended with the appendixes of a glorified body the beholding of Christ the amicable society of Angels freedom from temptations the knowledge of the secrets of nature and providence and some such like To which may be also added though of a lower degree open absolution or a visible deliverance of the Saints out of the overthrow of the wicked at the conflagration of the world power over Devils eminence of place enjoyment of friends and some other like Now let us briefly consider what tendencies there are in the religious soul towards each of these And here I must crave leave to speak joyntly both of the End and of the Motion thereunto though it may be thought that the former only falls fairly under our present consideration First Then I suppose that Eternal Life in the first sense of it is intended here to wit the essential happiness of the soul or its perfect and everlasting enjoyment of God For the description is here made of Religion it self in the abstract or that principle of divine life which Christ Jesus implanteth in the soul and being so considered it is hard to conceive how that should spring up into any of these appendant circumstances or into any thing but the completion and perfection of it self though the religious soul taken in the concrete possibly may And indeed though we should allow which we shall take into consideration under the next head that many of those high scriptural phrases which are brought to describe the future condition of believing souls do principally respect the appendixes of its essential happiness as a Kingdom a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens an inheritance reserved a place prepared and the like yet it seems very unnatural to interpret this phrase Life and Eternal Life any otherwise than of that which I call the essential happiness of the soul But if we interpret it of this the sense is very fair and easie thus this principle of divine life is continually endeavouring to grow up to its just altitude to advance it self unto a triumphant state even as all other principles of life do naturally tend towards a final accomplishment and ultimate perfection Carnal self or the animal life may be indeed said to be a well of water too poysonous water but that springs up into a sensual life popular applause self-accommodations or if you will in the Apostles phrase into the fulfilment of the lusts of the flesh This I speak only by way of illustratory opposition for to speak more
properly this corrupt principle hath in it the central force of death and Hell and is alwaies tumbling downward whereas this divine principle is alwaies climbing upward But they do both agree in this that they do both seek their own gratifications and study to acquire their respective perfections The everlasting and most glorious enjoyment of God is certainly most perfective of the soul and therefore is most properly and most deservingly said to be its Eternal Life according to that of our Saviour Joh. 17. 3. Now this Eternal Life is not a thing specifically different from Religion or the image of God or the divine life but indeed the greatest height and the most possible perfection of it self even as the Sun at noon-day is not a light really distinct from what is was in the first dawnings of the morning but a different degree and far more glorious state which seems to be the very similitude whereby the Spirit of God illustrateth the matter in hand Prov. 4. 18. Or as a man of perfect age is not a distinct species from a child but much more compleat and excellent in that species to which the Apostle refers treating of this subject 1 Cor. 13. 11. Man hath not two distinct kinds of happiness in the two distinct worlds that he is made to live in but one and the same thing is his blessedness in both which as I said before must needs be the enjoyment of God The translation made of the Text is very suitable to this notion for this divine principle is said to spring up not unto but into everlasting life q. d. it springs up till it be swallowed up into the perfect knowledge love and enjoyment of God Even as youth is swallowed up in manhood so this grace is swallowed up in glory and not so much abolished as indeed perfected By this phrase the genius of true Religion and the excellent temper of the true religious soul is most lively described This is the soul that being in some measure delivered from its unnatural bondage and freed from its unhappy confinement now spreads it self in God lifts up it self unto him stretches it self upon him is not content with a Heaven meerly to come but brings down Heaven into it self by carrying up it self unto and after the God of Heaven God is become great only great in the eye of such a Christian he is indeed become All things to him whilest this principle â—is rightly and actually predominant in him he knows no interest but to thrive and grow great in God no will but to serve the will and comply with the mind of God no end but to be united to God no business but to display and reflect the glory and perfections of God upon the Earth the main business of his life I say is to serve him the main ambition of his soul to be like unto him and his main happiness in this world to be united to him and in the world to come to be swallowed up in him in this world to know and love and rest and delight in and enjoy God more than all things and in the world to come to enjoy him more than so The gladsome growings up of the tender flowers unto the friendly Sun being once powerfully surpriz'd with his precious and benign influences and the chearful hast with which the sympathetick needle so amorously pursues the inchanting loadstone being once rightly toucht and affected with it do a little though but a little resemble and represent the motions of a spirit impregnated with this divine principle and strongly imprest with the image and stamp of God he puts in his hand by the hole of the door and the bowels of the espoused soul are presently moved yea melted for him Cant. 5. 4. He casts the skirt of his garment the mantle of his love and presently the converted soul leaves all to follow him Faith Hope and Love are knitting and springing graces and this Eternal Life is the end and perfection of them all not that any one of them I conceive shall be utterly incassated and abolished as some conclude concerning the two former though without good ground I think from the Apostles words 1 Cor. 13. 13. But Faith will be ripened into the most firm and undisturbed confidence affiance and acquiescence in God hope will be advanced into a more chearful powerful and confident expectation having for its object the perpetuation of the souls felicity and love will become much more loving and more clearly distinguishable from the imperfect longings and languishings of this present state when it shall flower up into pure delights and complacencies resting and glorying in the arms of its adequate satisfactory and eternal object The faith of the hypocrite and indeed his hope too is still springing up into self-preservation deliverance liberty a splendid and pompous state of the Church that is of his own party or some such thing as will gratifie the animal life and there iâ— terminates but the faith of the sincere and religious soul springs up into eternal life it knows no term but the salvation of the soul 1 Pet. 1. 9. As his hope knows no accomplishment but a state of god-like purity and perfection 1 Joh. 3. 3. The more natural man lives within himself within a circle of his own and cannot get out whether he eat or drink or pray or be zealous for the popular pulling down of the political Antichrist he is still in his own circle he is still sacrificing in all this to that great helluo the animal life as I have already made evident But the godly soul is disinterested of self and so is still contriving the advancement of a nobler life within it self and moving towards God as his supreme and all-sufficient good Give him all that the whole world can afford he cannot fix nor settle nor centre here God hath put into him a holy restless appetite after a higher good which he would rather be than what he is I know indeed that the soul that is thus divinely free may be hindered in its flight but it will deliver it self from the clog at length you may choak and damm up the streamings of this fountain perhaps but they will burst out again you may cast ashes upon this pure fire for a time but it will flame out again such a damp cannot arise no not from Hell it self as to extinguish it The Philistines I remember stopped the wells of water which Abraham had digged in Gerar and filled them with earth Gen. 26. 15. But this well of water which God diggeth in the holy and humble soul cannot be stopped neither by the Devil that King of Gerar that is of wandrings Job 1. 7. nor by any of his servants but it will find vent upward though you endeavour to fill it with earth which indeed is the likeliest to choak it for amor rerum terrenarum est viscus spiritualium pennarum though you cast dust and gravel of earthly