A WORK For none but ANGELS MEN THAT IS To be able to look into and to know our selves OR A BOOK Shewing what the SOULE Is Subsisting and having its operations without the Body it s more then a perfection or reflection of the Sense or Temperature of Humours Not traduced from the Parents subsisting by it self without the Body How she exercises her powers in the Body the vegetative or quickning power of the Senses Of the Imagination or Common sense the Phantasie Sensative Memory Passions Motion of Life the Locall Motion Intellectuall powers of the soul Of the Wit Understanding Reason Opinion Judgement Power of Will and the Relations betwixt Wit and Will Of the Intellectuall memory which is the Souls store-house wherein all that is laid up therein remaineth there even after death and cannot be lost that the Soule is Immortall and cannot dye cannot be destroyed her cause ceaseâ—h not violence nor time cannot destroy her and all Objections answered to the contrary Thomas Jenner has lineas composuit In faelix qui pauca sapit spernitque docâ—ri Such knowledge is too wonderfull for me it is high I cannot attaine unto it Psal 139.6 LONDON Printed by M. S. for Thomas Jenner at the South-Entrance of the Royall EXCHANGE 1658. Of the Soule of Man and the Immortality thereof Why since the desire to know did corrupt the roote of all mankind did my parents send me to Schoole that my minde might be inriched therewith for when our first parents cleere and sharpe reasons eye could have approached the eternall light as the Intellectuall Angells even then the Spirit of lies suggests that because they saw no Ill therefore they were blind and breathed into them a curious wish which did corrupt their will for that ill they straight desired to know which ill was nothing but a defect of good which the Devill could not shew while man stood in his perfection so that they were first to doe the Ill before they could attaine the knowledge of it as men by tasting poyson know the power of it by destroying themselves Thus man did ill to know good and blinded reasons eye to give light to passions eye and then he saw those wretched shapes of misery and woe nakednesse shame and poverty by experience Reason grew darke and could not discern the fair formes of God and truth and mans soul which at first was fair spotlesse and good sees her selfe spotted hanted with spirits impatient to see her own faults therefore turnes her selfe outward and sees the face of those things pleasing and agreable unto her sences so that she can never meet with her selfe The lights of Heaven which are the fair eyes of the World they looke down upon the World to view it and as they run and wander in the Skies they survey all things that are on the Center yet the lights mine eyes which see all objects farre and nigh look not into this little world of mine nor see my face in which they are fixed since nature fails us in no needfull thing why doe I want means to see my inward selfe which sight might bring me to the knowledge of my selfe which is the first degree to true wisdome that power which gave me ability to see externals infused an inward light to see my self by means of which I might have a perfect knowledge of my own form But as the eye can see nothing without the light of the Sun neither can the mind see her self without Divine light for how can art make that cleere which is dim by nature and the greatest wits are Ignorant both where she is and what she is one thinkes her to be Air and another fire and another Blood defused about the heart and that she is compounded of the Elements Musitians say our soules are Harmonies Physitians the complexions Epicures makes them swarmes of Atomes which by chance fly into our Bodies some again that one soule fills every man as the Sun gives light to every star others that the name of soule is a vain thing and that it is a well mixt body and as they differ about her substance so also where her seate is some lift her up into the Brain others thrust her down into the stomack some place her in the heart and others in the liver Some say that she is all in all and all in every part and that she is not contained but containes all and thus the learned Clerkes play at hazzard and let them say it is what they will there be some that will maintain it the only wise God to punish the pride of mens wits hath therefore wrought this confusion but he that did make the Soule of nothing and restor'd it when fallen to nothing that so we might be twice his can define her subtle forme and knowes her nature and powers To judge her selfe she must transcend her selfe for fetterd men cannot expresse their strength but now in these latter dayes those Divine Mysteries which were laid in darkness are brought to light and this Lampe of God which doth defuse it selfe through all the Region of the braine doth shew the immortall face of it VNDERSTANDING I once was Aegle ey'ed full of all light Am owle eyd now as dim as darke as night As through a glasse or Cloud I all thinges vew Shall on day see them in there proper hue MEMORIE A comÌ„on Jnne all comÌ„ers to reteyne A Siue where good runÌ„e out bad remayne A Burrow with a thousand vermine hydes A Den where nothinge that is good abides This she doth when from particular things she abstracts the Universall kinds which are immateriall and bodilesse and can be lodged no where else but in the minde And thus from divers acts and accidents which fall within her observation she abstracts divine power and virtue again how can she know severall bodies if she were a body the eye cannot see all colours at once nor the tongue relish all tasts at one time but successively nor can we judge of Passion except we be free from all passions nor can a Judg execute his office well if he be possest of either party if lastly this quick power were a body were it as swifte as fire or winde which blowes the on one way makes the other a spier her nimble body yet in time must move not slide through all places at an instant she is nigh and far above beneath in poynt of time which thought cannot devide she is as soon sent to China as to Spain and returnes as soon as sent she as soon measures the heavens as an ell of Silke As then the soule hath a substance besides the body in which she is confinde so hath she not a body of her own but is a spirit and a minde immateriall Since the body and soul have such diversities we may very well muse how this match began but that the Scripture tells us Zachariah 12.1 sayth the Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth
power to see although her windowes be choked with mists and clouds the imperfections are not in the agent but instrument the soule hath one intelligence in all in infants and old men although too much moysture be in the brain of the one and too much drinesse in the other which makes them that they cannot attain the outward printes of things then the soul wanting work is idle and we call the one childishnesse and the other dotage yet the soule hath a quick and active wit if she had apt tooles to worke withall and stuffe for give her but Organs fit and objects fair give but the aged man the sence of the younge man and she will straight way shew then her wonted excellency and as an old harper although he hath all his Crochets in his Brain yet can he not expresse it when the gout is in his fingers then dotage is no weaknesse of the minde but of the sense for if that did wast we should find it in all old men but most of them even at their dying houre have a minde more quick and lively and use their understanding power better then in their youth and their dying speeches are admired But it may be further objected if all her Organs dye then hath the soule no powers to use and is extincte because she cannot reduce them to act and if her powers be dead then what is she for some power springes from every thing and actings proceed from them therefore kill her power and act and destroy her It s very true the death of the body is the destruction of the sences so that she cannot use those faculties although their root still rest in her substance but as the body when it lives by the wit and will can judge and chuse without the aid of the body so when the body can serve her no longer and her sences are extinct yet can she discourse in heavenly contemplation all alone of what she hath heard and learned and as a man that hath good horsemanship and can play well on a lute if thou take both horse and lute away yet he still retains his skill and can put that forth if they be returned unto him when the body revives they shall be able to fulfill all their wanted offices But it may be further objected How shall she employ her self seeing all her sences be gon she may keep and enjoy what she hath got but hath no means to understand or to get more then what doe those poor soules which get nothing or those that cannot keep what they have got like lives which let all out these soules must sleepe for want of exercise See how man argues against himselfe Why should we not have other means to know as children in the wombe live by the navil but being come forth are nourished otherwise children if they had use of their sences and could hear their mothers tell them that in a short time they should come from thence they then would fear their birth more then we fear our death and would cry out that if their navill strings were cut how should their lifes be preserved since no other conduit brings their food and if a man should reply unto those babes and tell them when they come into this fair world they shall see the Sun Moon and Stars Sea and earth and meet with ten thousand dainties which they shall take in with pleasure in their mouthes which shall be cordiall as well as sweet and their little limbs shall grow unto tall bodies they would thinke it a fable as we doe of the Story of the Golden age or as among us many sensuall spirits hold the world to come a feined stage yet those infants shall find it true So when the soule is born for death is nothing but the soules birth she shall see ten thousand things beyond her imagination and know them in an unknown manner them shall she see no more by spectacles nor hear no more by her double Spies her selfe in instant will all things explore for every thing is present to her and lyes before her But still it may be objected if the soules departed doe live why do they not return to bring us newes of the strange world wherein they see such wonders vain man we doe beleeve that men live under the Zenith of both the frozen poles although none come from thence to tell us So cannot we have the like faith of our soules the soule hath no more to doe here then we have to returne into our mothers womb what man did ever covet it although we all come from thence and that shewes the soule hath a good being that they never desire to come hither again doubtlesse such soules as mount up so high as to see their Creators face holds this in so base an account as that she looks down and scorns this wretched place As for such as are detruded to hell if they would come here yet they cannot but still there are some wicked ones as say that politick men have spread this lye of heaven and hell only to make men virtuous so then it seems morall virtues be good but they speake this for their private gain for that is the standing of Common-wealths wherein their private benefit is interrested but how can that be false that the Christian Jew Turke Persian Tarter Canibal hold to be true this doctrine entred not into the ear but is native in the breast if death should destroy man for whose sake all things was made then should he be more miserable then Dawes Trees and Rockes which last longer then he who is taken away at an instant but blessed be that great power that hath blessed man with longer life then heaven and earth and hath infused into man mortall powers not subject to the grave for although the soul seeme to bear about it her grave and almost buried alive in this world she needs not to fear the death of the body for when this shell is broke there comes forth a chicken for as there are three essentiall powers of the soule the quickning power and power of the Sence and also of reason there be also three kinds of life defined her in her due season to perfect them all The first life which is vegitive is that nursing power spent in the wombe where when she finds defects of nourishment she expells her body and growes too bigge for that place and comes into the world where all his sences are in perfection where he finds flowers to smell and fruits to tast sees sundry formes and hears varieties of sounds and when he hath past somtime upon this stage his reason begins to be awaked which although she springes when sences begin to fade by reason of age yet can she make here no perfect practice Then doth the aspiring soul leave the body which we call death but were it known to all what life our soules receive by this death they would rather call it a birth
Root and Fountaine of man kinde did draw corruption and Gods curse by sin this was a charge that did binde all his off-springe and so they all grew corrupted as when the hand sins the man offendes for part from whole in this the law doth not sever so Adams sin extends to whole mankinde for all natures are but part of his Therefore this sin of kind was not personall but reall and hereditary the guile and punishment whereof must pass by course of nature and law for as that easie law was given to all to Ancestor to heir first and last so the transgression was generall in our law we see some foot steps of this which take her root from God and nature Ten thousand men make but one corporation and these and their successors are but one and if they gain or loose their liberties they harme and profit not themselves alone but their Successors and so the Ancestor and all his heirs if they should increase as the Sand their advancements and forfitures are still but one his civill acts doe binde and harme them all There are a Crew of fellowes J suppose That angle for their Victualls with their nose As quick as Beagles in the smelling sence To smell a feast in Paules 2 miles from thence Trueth and a Lye did each a Lodging lack And to a Gallants Eare their course did take Trueth was put by being but meanly clad And in the Eare the Lye the Lodging had Next she useth the smell in the nostrels as into them at first God breathed life so now he makes his power to dwell in them to judge of all Aires whereby we live and breath this sence is Mistress of an Art to sell sweete perfumes to soft people yet it imparts but little good for they have the best smell that cannot away with any perfumes yet good sents doe awake the fancy refine the wit and purifie the Braine and old devotions did use incense to make mens spirits more apt for divine thoughts Lastly the power of feeling which is lifes roote which doth shed it selfe through every living part and extends it selfe from head to foot by sinewes as a net covering all the body or much like a spider which setteth in the midst of her web and if the outmost thread of it be touched she instantly feels it by the touch we discern what 's hard smooth rough what 's hot and cold and dry and moyst these are the outward instruments of the soule and the Guards by which every thing must passe into the Soule or aproacheth unto the minds intelligence or touch wits looking-glasse the Fantasie yet these Porters which admit all things themselves neither discern nor perceive them one Common power which sits in the forehead brings together all their proper formes For all those Nerves which carry spirits of Sense and goe spreading themselves to the outward Organ are there united as their Center and there they know by this power those sundry formes the outward Organs present things doe receive the inward sence retayne the things that are absent for she straightwayes transmits what she perceives unto the higher Region of the Brain Where sits the Phantasie which is the hand maid neer to the minde and so beholds and discerneth them all and things that are divers in their kinde compounds in one weigheth them in her Ballance and so some she esteemes good and some ill and some things neuterall neither good nor bad this busie power is working night and day when the outward sences are at rest a thousand light and phantasticall dreames with their fluttering wings keeps her still awake yet all are not alwayes afore her she successively intends this and that and what she ceaseth to see she commits to the large volume of the memory This Lidger Book lyes behinde in the Brain like Janus eye seated in the Poll and is the storehouse of the minde which much remembers and forgets more here sences apprehension ends as a stone cast into the Pond of Water one Circle makes another till at last it toucheth the Banke But although the apprehensive power do pawse yet the motive virtue is lively and causeth passions in the heart as joy griefe fear hope love and hate and these passions bring forth divers actions in our lives for all actions without the light of reason proceed from passion but since the powers of sence lodge in the Brain how comes passions from the heart it ariseth from the mutuall love and kind intelligence betwixt the Brain and the Heart From the kinde heat which raigns in the heart from thence the spirits of life takes their beginning these spirits of life ascending to the brain causeth a sensablenesse and imediately judgeth whether it be good or ill and sends down to the heart where all affections dwell a good or ill report and if it be good it causeth love and longing hope and well assured joy If it be ill it anoyes the heart with vexing grief and trembling fear and hatred Now if these naturall affections were good or if we had such strength of reason and especially grace for to rectifie natures passion we might be happy and not so often miscarry as we doe for we were but blocks without them besides there ariseth another motive power out of the heart which are the vitall spirits born in arteries and causeth continuall motion in all parts it makes the pulses to beate and lunges respier and holdes the sinewes like a Bridle so that the body retires or advanceth turns or stops as she strains or slackens them thus the soule tunes the bodyes instrument with life and sence fit instruments being sent by the body although the actions doe flow from the soules influence sometimes I will this yet I have not a power to expresse the working of the wit and will for though their roote be knit to the body yet use not the body when they use their skill WILL. Free to all ill till freed to none but ill Now this I will anon the same I nill Appetite ere while ere while Reason may Nere good but when Gods Spirit beares y e sway To these high powers there is a store-house where lyeth all Arts and generall reasons which remaine unto the soule even after death which cannot be washed away by any Loethean flood of forgetfulnesse This is the soule and these be her virtues which although they have their sundry proper ends and one exceed another yet each one doe mutually depend on the other our understanding is given us to know God and he being known our will is given us to love him but he could not be known to us here below but by his word and workes which we receive through the sences and as the understanding reapes the fruit of sence so the quickning power feeds the sences and while they do thus dispence their severall powers the best needeth the service of the least even as
well enough if they could but have an artifice to get their sins pardoned that they might be freed from the punishment that is due to them and might be admitted into a sensuall heaven though they live to all eternity under the power of sin and wickednesse and never have the lest tast of the true heavenly Manna nor any knowledge of the name written on the white stone which no man knowes but he that hath it and therefore it will serve these mens turnes well enough if they may be freed from the punishment of sin while they love sin with all their hearts The true hearted christian is really departed out of wicked Sodom out of this noysome state of sin he is not so much solicitus about his state as about his life that he may still continue that heavenly life that is begun in him he is not so anxious about his justification in a proposterous method as about the sanctification of his heart and affection that is the best way to be assured of his justification he feeles the divine life in him and that he knowes can never sink him to hell he drinkes of the true springs of everlasting life and knowes he shall never see death he is not so much perplext about his future salvation because he findes he is already saved because it selfe hath taken him upon its wings and carries him away swiftly far from the region of death and Hell I beseech you let us not deceive our selves without such an inward frame of spirit as this is that is really crucifyed to the world and planted into Christ sucking life and influence from him God himselfe with what he can do without us would never make us happy Besides the destroying of this corrupt naturall and fleshly life we must also have a new and spirituall life begotten in us For as Christ and the divine nature did assume the humane nature to it selfe so likewise in every christian the divine life or the life of God must as it were assume the humane and created life of man and totally act it and inforce it this is the essence of the new creature this is the life and soul of christianity the marrow and quintessence of all religion to have a life wrapped up in man that is the very life of God himselfe and whosoever doth not pertake of this life whatsoever opinion he entertains in religion whatever outward forms of discipline he contends for whatever sects he belongs to he is either carnall or devilish For nothing of mans is pleasing unto God but that that God workes in man and by man and whatsoever workes with God according to that that is in God this is in a manner one spirit with God himselfe and whatsoever it doth it doth it in Forma Dei that is God using this mans soule and life and abilities doth act it in him But whatsoever perticular created life lives otherwise then the eternall life of God lives this sets up it selfe against God and this is the life of corrupt nature and the life of the Devill this is sin and nothing else to live otherwise then the eternal life of God lives and this was that that Christ came into the world to destroy and how doth he doe this surely no otherwise then by bringing Gods own life into the humanity Again for he himselfe was nothing else but a Tabernacle of God pitched amongst men nothing but a humane nature acted and disposed and guided by the life of God so that whatsoever Christ lives God lives in him now this must not only be done by Christ without us but the same also must be done within us One grosse mistake among men that yet pretend much to Religion that is very prejudiciall to the advancement of this spirituall righteousnesse that the Gospel requires of us and that is a conseite that men have whereby they think that salvation is a meer outward work and therefore may be wholly effected by outward means whereas it is nothing else for the substance of it but the inward transforming of our selves into the likenesse of God the reall translating of us out of the life of nature into the divine life or life of God or the begetting of a new and heavenly life in the soule of man that is the very same that doth every way agree with the life of God himselfe I say it with reverence God himselfe cannot make us happy by any thing without us but only by forming his own nature and likenesse in us they are carnall and earthly minded men and no way suitable to the state of glory and happinesse that fancy the happinesse of heaven to consist only in things without them and look upon it only as an outward place and not as an inward state and disposition of the soule I say therefore that salvation it is an inward thing and consists chiefly in being saved from our sins and being delivered from our own life and being translated out of the Kingdome of darknesse into the Kingdome of light and righteousnesse and it is not a Heaven without us though never so glorious and glistering a place nay it is not God without us that can make us truly and really happy but it is God inwardly setting himselfe in our soules and so dwelling in us that our sins may be so ruled and guided by the life of God as the members of our bodies are acted by our soules and when this is once done we shall at once live both the life of God and injoy the joy peace and happinesse of God himselfe which will all at once flow in upon us I would not be mistaken I doe not here deny but that there be some other inferiour circumstances belonging to the state of happinesse as the changing of these vild bodies of ours and instead of this earthly tabernacle that weighs down the minde as Solomon speakes when as our soules were as it were now buried in a heepe of flesh they shall receive an other more divine Tabernacle that Paul calls a spirituall body a more fit companion for our soules and many other such things answerable hereunto I say these things I doe not deny but yet all these things are of an inferiour nature and all depend upon the former the inward frame and disposition of the soule in which the substance of heaven and hell consist Now this being well consider'd and understood it is very plain that to thinke we can be saved without inward righteousnesse meerly by something done without us without the inward and reall change of our soules is all one as to thinke we can be saved without salvation or we can be made happy without the possession of happinesse though we must still remember the only procuring cause of our salvation is the death sufferings and satisfaction of Christ who was made a propitiation for our sins this is therefore the reason for which this inward righteousnesse before spoken of is to be urged in the Gospel not
the King serves the Magistrate and the commons feed them both the Magistrate preserves the commons by the power they have from their Prince The quickning power would be and there it rests the sences are not contented only to be but would be well but the soul desires endlesse felicity these three powers doe make three sorts of men for one sort of men desire as plants only to fill themselves and some like beasts think the world is only to take their pleasure in it and some men as Angels love to live in contemplation therefore the 〈…〉 turned some men into flowers others into beasts 〈…〉 to Angells which still travill and still rest Yet these three powers are not three soules but one as one and two or both contained in three 3 being one number by it selfe alone a shadow of the blessed Trinity These meditations may draw from us this acclamation What is man that thou adornest him with so bright a minde madest him over all thy creatures a King and an Angels Peer O what hast thou inspierd into this dying flesh what a heavenly life power and lively life spreading virtue and a sparkling fire In other workes of thine thou leavest thy print but in man hast written thine own Image there cannot be a creature more divine this exceeds mans thought to consider how highly God hath raised man since God became man the Angels are astonisht when they view and admire this mistery neither hath he endowed man with these blessings for a day neither do they depend on this life for though the soule was made in time yet lives for aye and though it had a beginning yet hath no end Her only end is never ending blisse and that consisteth in beholding the eternall face of the Almighty who is the first of causes and last of ends and to doe this she must needs be eternall then how sencelesse or dead a soul hath he that thinks his soul dieth with his body or if he think not so yet would fain have it so that he might sin with the more security Although light and vicious persons say our soules are but a smoake or Aiery blast which while we live playes within our nostrills and when he dies turns to winde although they say so yet they know not what to think for ten thousand doubts doe arise in their minds and although they strive against their consciences there are some sparkes in their flintey breasts which cannot be extinct which though fain they would yet cannot be beasts but whoso makes a merror of his minde and with patience views himselfe within shall cleerly see the soules eternity though all other beauties of the soule be defaced because of his sin For first we find an appetite in every mans mind to learn and know the truth of every thing this is connaturall and born with him on which the essence of the soul depends she hath a native might with this desire to finde out the truth of every thing if she had time the innumerable effects to sort aâ—ight and to climbe by degrees from cause to cause but sithence our lives slide so fast away through the winde as the hungry Eagle or as the ships which leaves no print of their passage of which swifte little time we spend while some things we strain through the sences that our short race of life is ended ere we can attain the principles of skil so that either God who hath made nothing in vain in vain hath given this appetite and Flower or else our knowledge which is begun here must be perfected in heaven To one whole kind the Allmighty never gave a power but most part of that kinde did use the same as though some eyes be blind yet most eyes can see perfectly so though some be lame in their limbs yet most can walke but no soule can know the truth in this life so perfectly as it hath power to doe if then perfection is not to be found here below he must ascend higher where it is to be obtained Again how can she but be immortall when with the motion of her will and understanding she still aspiers to eternity and is never at rest tell she attaineth thereunto water in conduit pipes can arise no higher then the well head from which they springe Therefore since she doth aspier to the Almighty she must be eternall the nature of all moveable things are to move to things of their own kinde as the earth downward and the fire ascends tell both touch their proper elements and as the thirsty earth suckes her moysture from the Sea to fill her empty veines and so glides along her grassie plaines she stayes long as loath to leave the land out of whose sides she came she tasts all places and turns on every hand unwilling to forsake her flowery bankes yet nature doth so carry and lead her streames that she makes no finall stay tell she return into the bosome of the Ocean Even so the Spirit of God doth secretly infuse into this earthy mould our soules which at first doth behold this world and at first her mothers earth she holdeth dear and embracerh the world and worldly things she flyes close to the earth and hovers here and mounts not up with her celestiall winges and cannot light on any thing which doth agree with her heavenly nature she cannot rest nor fix her thoughts neither can she be contented with any thing for who ever found it in honour wealth or pleasure and having his health ceased to wish or having wisdome was not vexed in minde as a Bee that lights on every flower and sucks and tasteth on all but being pleased with none at last ariseth and sores away like Noahs dove flyes into the Arke from whence she came When Hearing Seeing Tasting Smelling's past Feeling as long as life remaines doth last Mayde reach my Lute J am not well indeede O pitty-mee my Bird hath made mee bleede FANCIE Ape-like I all thinges imitate Dreame-like I them vary-straite New proiects fashions I inuent All Shapes to head harte present Hence it is that Ideots although they have a mind able to know the truth and chuse that which is good if she could find such figures in the Brain as she might find provided she were in her right temper but if a frensie doe possesse it it so blots and disturbes the formes of things Phantasie proves altogether vain and brings no true relation to the understanding then the soule admits all for truth and buildes false conclusions flyes the good and persewes the Ill beleeving all that this false spie propounds but purge the humours and appease the rage which wrought this distemper in the Phantasie then will the wit which never had disease discourse as it ought and judge discreetly for the eye hath its perfect power of sight although the streame be troubled then these defects are in the sences and not in the soule she looseth not her
or Gaole delivery for in this third life reason will be so bright as her sparkes will be like the Sun beames and shall the reall â—â—ght enjoy of God being still increast by divine influence Then let us take up this acclamation O ignorant poor man what bearest thou lockt up in the casket of thy breast what Jewels and what riches and what heavenly treasure hast thou in so weak a chest Looke into thy soule and thou shalt see such virtues honour and pleasure and whatsoever is counted excellent in this life Thinke of her worth and then know that God did mean thy worthy mind should embrace worthy things Blot not her beauties with unclean thoughts neither dishonour her with thy base passions destroy not her quickning power with surfeitings and drunkennesse let not her sensitive power be mar'd with sensualities and fleshly desires let not her serious thoughts be employed on idle things and enslave not her will to vanity and whensoever thou thinkest of her eternity have not this evill thought of her that death is against her nature no assure thy selfe it is a birth in which she is brought forth to a better being and when thou comest to dye sing and rejoyce as a swan that thou art a going to blisse if thou have faith to beleeve in Jesus Christ that thy sinns may be forgiven thee and whereas before thou did'st fear as a child which is in the darke fear not now having this light brought into thee and now O thou my soule turn thine eye inward and view the rayes and beams of thy divine forme and know that whilst thou art clouded with this flesh of thine thou canst not know any thing perfectly study the highest and best things but retayne an humble thought of thy selfe cast down thy self and strive to raise the glorious and sacred name of thy Maker and blessed Redeemer use all thy powers to praise that blessed power which gives thee power to be and also power to use those powers thou art endewed withall and thus shut up all and say O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his wayes past finding out Of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever FINIS WHAT HEAVEN IS VINDICATED From the Vulgar mistakes and grosse conceivings of many some of which mistakes is mention made in this Title the rest of them manifested and enlarged in the ensuing Treatise AS I. Mistake of Heaven is that fancey the happinesse of Heaven to consist only in things without them and look upon it only as an outward place and not as an inward state and disposition of the Soule II. Grosse conceit of Heaven is as if it were nothing but a Theatre a place of sights and showes and God himselfe were nothing but a more Pompious spectacle there to be gazed upon by these bodily eyes whereas we are never at a distance from him but only in the dispersion multiplicity distraction and scattering of our boâ—â—â—s and in the dissimilitude and disproportion of our soules unto him III. Another Vulgar and common mistake is that God doth not require any endeavours or activity of ours in the businesse of Heaven and that he deales with us in matters of Grace and Glory as meere stocks and stones and inanimall creatures and not in any way suitable to us as free and rationall for although we cannot make alive the new man in us yet we may concur to the killing and destroying of the old by refusing to satisfie the lusts and cravings of it IIII. Neither are we to entertain this conceit that God hath found out any other way to save his people from Hell and destruction without saving of them from their sins and wickednesses Infaelix cujus nulli sapientia prodest What Heaven is vindicated from the Vulgar mistakes and grosse conceivings of many False Gospellers undermine the true righteousnesse of God and make the Gospel nothing else but a slight imagination we should not entertain any such conceit as if Christ came with any new devise to bring men to heaven without the hard labour of mortifying their lusts as if the intent of his coming was to promulgate ease and liberty to the flesh and by his being crucifyed for us upon the Crosse to excuse our crucifying the old man in our hearts as if he had found out a way to save his people from hell and destruction without saving of them from their sins and wickednesses 1. The possibility of attaining that righteousnesse that is required of us in the Gospel it is by the power of Christ attainable or else none could enter into the Kingdome of Heaven He that is born of God sins not for his seed remaines in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God and must we needs say that he that is born of God can and may doe nothing else but sin is the immortall seed of Gods holy spirit of Gods eternall word in the hearts of true believers is nothing else but the seed of the Serpent and the Cockatrice Eggs it is possible that the divine nature that the Scripture speaks of should be nothing else but the nature of the Devil that Gods holy spirit in us shouâ—d make us habitations for it selfe to dwell in and yet suffer us at the same time to be vessells of sin and Satan is the end of the holy Gospel not at all to free us from sin by the power of Christ but only to spread a Purple vaile over us not all to destroy the works of the Devill in us but only to cover them from Gods avenging eye Is the end of the Gospel nothing else but to paliate over the diseases of our corruptions which remain in us ever sence the fall and not at all to cure them If so then surely the reason of this is either because Christ is not able to overcome sin and Satan in us as the Manikees of old dreamed or else because he is not willing and that is a greater disparagement to him then the former for the other robbs him only of the Glory of his power but this spoyles him of the Glory of his goodness as if Christ should envy that to us which of all other things is the most necessary to make us happy or as if God were not as carefull to advance his Kingdome of light here in the world as the Devill is to inlarge his Kingdome of darknesse as if God did not love his own butifull Image his own son and nature but would willingly suffer it to be choaked and smothered here in the world by those Fiends of darknesse whom he hath long since lockt and fettered up in chains of darknesse and reserved for the judgment of the great day Say's the Philosopher no man sets up a marke on purpose that men might misse it and shall God set up this marke of righteousnesse in the Gospel as a Butt
for us to aime at for this very end and purpose that all the world should misse it Can he that is the faithfull and true God put such a trick of fraud and mockery upon his creatures No surely righteousnesse evangelicall righteousnesse is the only thing intended per see in all Gods Commandements and sin which is nothing else but a missing of the marke comes in by accident sin is that which God will either destroy and banish out of the World by the clear discovery of his truth in the hearts of men or else he will at last chain it in the bottomlesse pit to all eternity and make the blacknesse of it to be a soyle to set off the glory of his justice But it is suggested by some that Christ will not therefore bestow any true righteousnesse holinesse or sanctification upon a Saint on purpose that he might keep him humble as if the only way to make men truly humble were to make them wicked and as it men would be so much the more proud by how much the more holy and made truly partakers of the image of God Away then wâ—th this fond conceit whereby we doe nothing else but gratifie mens lusts And smother and extinguish the life of God in the world it is the sluggard that sayes there is a Lion in the way but the true beleever saith Who art thou O great mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain nay the truth it selfe saith All things are possible to them that beleeve we may undoubtedly by the power of God in us prevaile every day more and more over the power of sin and Satan the weapons of our warfare are very powerfull and able to batter down the strong holds of Satan in our hearts he that is indeed born of God shall overcome the world and the flesh and the Devil to by the power of God in him he shall destroy the law of sin in his members by the true Law the Law of the Spirit of life and if we should with unfeigned simplicity of heart apply our selves to God and resigning up our selvs to him to be taught led by him we should certainly find that his free spitit would inwardly lead us into all wayes of obedience and that it would be as naturall and as delightfull to us to walke on in those pleasant pathes of holinesse and righteousnesse as ever it was to wander in those crooked wayes of sin and wickednesse nay the true Regenerate christian is so far from delighting secretly in the wayes of sin as the false hearted hypocrite thinks he doth that there is nothing that more hurts and wounds his soule then that he hath not a more lively sence of evill for the divine life in him being a delicate and tender thing hath the most quickest sence of any thing that is contrary to it and is most ingenious and industrious for selfe preservation against it wisdome is easie to the wise sayes Solomon and her wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse to them and all her paths are peace and sin is the most ugly and forlorn thing in the world Let not therefore these evill spyes that bring an evill report upon this Land of Promise dishearten and discourage us but let us goe on in the Power of God and his strength and exercise our faith in this not only that we shall be freed from Fire and Brimstone here after but that we shall be delivered from the power of sin and Satan in our own hearts this is that faith whereby we overcome the world and if we had more of this faith in the power of Christ to destroy our corruptions in us and to tread down Satan under our feete and all that fond and ungrounded confidence that God intends to save us while we continue under the power of sin we should goe on more successefully and prosperously in the way to Heaven And it is a dangerous mistake now under the Gospel to conceive that God will save men out of a fond affection towards them without renuing of their natures and begetting his own son the new Creature in their hearts Meerly for beleeving this very thing that they shall be saved as if it were possible for men to be made happy without being delivered from the power of sin which is all one as if we should say that it were possible for men to be saved without salvation surely such as these think heaven nothing else but a meer place without them a fine glistering place whose gates are of pearl and the walls of Jasper and the bottome paved with starrs a very Turkish Paradise for had they once tasted of the true pleasures of the soule purg'd from sin and really establisht in the life of God they would then see so much deformity in sin that they would not accept of heaven upon such terms as those that is to be placed in an outward heaven without the inward change and renuing of their mindes without the conforming of their soules to the Image and likenesse of God I am sure a true Saint would not take heaven on such conditions as these are that he might enjoy all the outward pleasures that are possible that he might have a shining glistering body that he might tread upon Stars and flye upon the wings of the winde that he might converse with Cherubims and Serafims Angels and arke Angels if all this while he must continue filthy within full of noysome and stincking lusts voyd of divine wisdome that purges and purifies the soule having a darke and sottish minde unruly affection continually strugling and quarrelling within God he may indeed dispence with the punishment that belongs to sin he may forgive and pardon in respect of punishment but he can never account those truly holy that are truly wicked and bond slaves to sin and Satan Now this can never make us happy to be freed only from the punishment of sin we can never be happy till we be made pertakers of the life of God himselfe till we have the same minde and life in us that is in God himselfe If God should account us righteous except we were truly possessed of a righteousnesse within us I may speak it with reverence this could doe us no good no true christian would be contented with it no more then a man that is sick could be contented to be accounted whole or one that is poor and naked could be contented to be accounted rich and cloathed no more then one that is frozen in a cold winter night could be contented to be accounted hot nothing without us can make us really happy till we be inwardly made pertakers of the Image of God But it is very plain and easie to discover the ground of these mistakes because carnal men desire not so much to enjoy heaven as to be freed from hell or if they desire heaven they desire nothing at all in it but only their own ease and carnall pleasure it would serve their turn
as if we could thereby merrit any thing at all at the hands of God for we can merrit no thing but there is nothing that God himselfe can bestow upon us in heaven better then the partisipation of his own life and nature this inward change of the soul this new creature is salvation it self and if we be not possessed of it in some measure here we have little reason how ever we may fondly flatter our selves to think it shall be done hereafter that is the first mistake that I shall take notice of that we are apt to conceive that salvation is an outward worke and may be wrought only by outward means 2. There is another mistake that is very neer a kin to that in matters of religion and that is when we seek for God we looke for God wholly abroad without our selves whereas the only way to finde God is to turn our selves inward and to looke for him in the bottome of our own soules for if we could be carried up beyond the spheares and pry into every corner of the starrs in heaven above certainly we should as little find God there as we did on earth if we could find God any where abroad without us this could not make us happy for then God would be really at a distance from us but our happinesse consists in such a reall communion with God as our Saviour discribes 17 Joh. 22. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one as we are one I in them and they in me that all might be made perfect in one The heaven where God dwells in and where alone he is to be found is in a regenerate soul and he that will indeed find God and be united to him must not gaze and gad abroad and turn his eyes wholly outward but he must look to find him within Intimis animis for there he may at once both see him feele him taste him and be united to him God is never distant by place from us for in him we live and move and have our being but all our distance from him is only in the dispersion multiplicity destractions and scatterings of our hearts and in the dissimilitude and disproportions of our soules unto him and when these things are once removed then God appears to us who was never absent from us but only our eyes are now unvailed to see and behold him God is every where alike to him that can feele him he is only not present to him that cannot receive him as the sun shines not in a house where the curtains are drawn and the windowes stopt up This is the reason why many have so much adoe to finde God because they look for him as a corporall thing they still imploy their fansies and imaginations to finde him without and send them a roving gadding and wandering abroad after God and have such naturall and grosse conceits of heaven as if it were nothing but a Theatre a place of sights and shows and God himselfe were nothing but a more pompeous spectacle there to be gazed upon by these bodily eyes God I say is to be sought by a Christian within his own soule and the way to find him there is not by knowledge or study or speculation but by a leaving off all things even our own wit and knowledge and especially our lives and by abstracting of our selves from the love of the world and of our selves and dying to them and then out of this death will spring the true and heavenly light in which alone God is seen and known 3. There is yet another mistake that is very vulgar and common and that is that men are generally very apt to conceive that God doth not require any endeavours any activity of ours at all in the businesse of Religion and that God deales with us in matters of grace and spirituall things as meer stockes and stones and inanimal creatures and not in a way suitable to us as we are free and rationall This I conceive to be another mistake that damps and choakes mens endeavours of subduing and mortifying their lusts for by this means we lazily ly down under the burden of our sins and think we may cast the blame of our wickedness upon God himselfe he hath not given us strength he hath not given us power and ability this is a strong castle of sin in which men are apt to garison themselves against all the hearty exhortations and instructions which the Word of God and the messengers of God bring unto them whereas the Scripture every where calls upon us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling to make our calling and election sure to gird up the loyns of our minds to fight the good fight of faith and Christ himselfe tells us That he with his spirit stands at the doore and knocks if any man open and will hear his voyce I will come into him saith he and sup with him and he with me It is true indeed it is not in our power to make our selves new creatures to be regenerate and born again when we please but as our Saviour tells us the winde blowes where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof and canst not tell whence it comes nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit but yet let us not deceive our selves though this change in us be a new birth and we cannot make our selves the sons of God no more then we can make our selves the Sons of men we can indeed but Pati Deum lye down and suffer while he prints his own Image on our hearts while he forms himselfe in our soules yet notwithstanding let us not deceive our selves there is something for us to doe and that the Scripture every where calls upon us for and that is not to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof to put off the old man that is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts to mortifie and subdue this body of death that we carry about us for though we cannot make alive the new man in us when we please yet we may concurr to the killing and destroying of the old by refusing to satisfie the lusts cravings of it then by looking up to heaven imploring Gods assistance that he would come down upon us the second time breath into us the breath of supernaturall life we have therefore many gracious promises made to us in the Gospel on purpose to incourage us to faith in God that he will be always ready to prevent us with his goodnesse to remove the wretched infidelity of our hearts whereby our confidence in God is choaked all heavenly endeavours are dampt in us the whole Gospel was written to this end purpose to destroy this infidelity and assure us that we may come to God that he is a rewarder of those that seek him FINIS That the soul is created iâ—mediately by God Zach. 12.1 Erroneus opinions of the Creation of soules That the soul is not traduced from their parents Reasons drawn from nature Matthew 19. Reason drawn from divinity Smelling Feeling The Immagination or common sence The Phantasie The sensative memory The passions of sence Motion of life Locall motion The Intellectuall powers of the soul The Intellectuall memory An Acclamation That the soul is immortall and cannot dye Reason 1. Drawn from the desire of knowledge Reason 2. Drawn from the Motion of the Soule The Soul compared to a River Objection