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
which nevertheless is nothing else but a circular and reciprocal motion between the Object and the Power the Power is moved with a full desire to the Object the Object being enjoyed returns it self adequately to the desire and this is so swift and imperceptible a motion that it is called the Rest of that Power Thus it is with the Understanding when it hath attained the knowledge of some excellent Art or Object below It is true this breeds some delight but because the Object that is known is not adequate to the extent of the Understanding it returns not an answerable return to the Understanding and therefore though it take some delight in it yet it is but faint and weak but at utmost it rests not in it but moves to something else but this Object is more than adequate to the largest Understanding and therefore when the Understanding is filled with it it cannot choose but rest in it with the most absolute complacence and delight that that Power is capable of 2. But though the Understanding were able to read all the Infinite Perfections of God yet if that other Great Faculty be not satisfied as it is impossible the Soul should be compleatly happy so it is possible it may be extreamly miserable if whiles the Understanding contemplated the Greatness Power and Goodness of God the Soul should not partake of it but that Power ingage against it Therefore the second part of the Happiness of the Soul is the Communication of the Goodness of God to the Soul whereof it is capable and which the Will desires by letting in upon the Soul the beams and light of his Love his favour his acceptation his delight in the Soul whereby as the Soul most eagerly moves to him as his Chiefest Good so it pleaseth him to entertain those motions and fills them with enjoyment of himself and the sight and sense of his love to it This Union of God to his Creature either in filling it with his Knowledge or his Goodness we are not able to discover only herein consists Man's Happiness when his Understanding is filled with his Maker's Light and his Will with his Love which creates a kind of mutual propriety between God and the Soul I will be their God and they shall be my People Now though this may be the Happiness of the Soul separated but how can this be said to be the Happiness of Man which consisting of a Body and inferiour Faculties subservient thereunto and to his subsistence as a Man or whether and how can this Happiness be acquired or enjoyed by Man in this life since his Soul now acts and moves organically and according to the temper and accommodations of the Body and so is not capable of that clear and undisturbed Knowledge of God or sense of his Love and if it were how could that accommodate the necessities of his outward Man These things are to be considered to answer this Question 1. What are the Degrees of Happiness attainable by the Soul in this life and wherein it consists 2 What Happiness is attainable for the whole Compositum or Frame of Man in this Life and wherein it consists Touching the former we say 1. There is not the same degree of Happiness to be expected for the Soul in this Life as there is when either it is freed from the Body or the Body freed from those imperfections of mixt Body Which we carry about us The reason is evident in both the great Faculties in that of the Understanding it works now by Organs and Instruments of the Body and is straitened in its operations according to the condition of those Organs and Instruments it sees now with the Eyes of the Body though it works out of that sight higher conclusions and if it had as once it had a more clear and immediate Vision of God yet it could not be so capacious within the limits of the Body as when the Soul were meerly spiritual or the Body spiritualized Again as to the Will it cannot exercise the utmost of his activity in the Love of God because the necessity of the humane condition requires some of its thought provisions and motions neither can it be so receptive of that infinite Love and Goodness of God being confined and straitened with a corruptible Body as if it were at large 2. That the Wise God did provide a proportionable degree of Happiness to the Soul in this Life and this upon the reasons already given Now in as much as the actings of the Soul in the Body are more incompleat and imperfect that Happiness that was so ordained for it though it were fully proportionable to the perfection of the actings of the Soul here yet it was not so perfect as that Consummate Happiness which was provided for it hereafter it was perfectly proportionable to the condition of the Soul as it was in the Body though not proportionable to that enjoyment which the Soul might have when freed from the straitness of the Body and as the Happiness of the Soul in the Body was inferiour to the Happiness of the Soul separate so questionless as the Soul in the Body receives improvements and abatements in its actings in the Body by the conjunction with it according to the variety of the temper frame and constitutions of the Body so the present enjoyment of Happiness in the Soul might be more or less if Man had continued in his perfection a Child had not had the same measure of internal Happiness as a Man bad for though the substance of the Soul were the same its operations in the Body were diversified in their perfections according to the variety of the temper of the Body which naturally the Soul exerciseth in its operations 3. That though ex natura rei Man was ordained to temporal Happiness in his Soul yet it is evident that somewhat hath intervened and daily doth intervene whereby that Fruition is diverted and disturbed what ever it be Of this more infra The highest degree of Happiness of the Soul in this Life consists in these things 1. In an Anticipation or Expectation or Prevision of that Happiness which it shall enjoy This though it be not a real Fruition yet it is very near it in the Soul if a miserable Pilgrim should have a certain assurance that after twenty years walk he should be sure to be invested in a perpetual Kingdom wherein he should have perfection of Ease and Delight this Prevision of this Happiness is so present in his Soul that it is in effect presently enjoyed and over-weighs the present tediousness of his Journey 2. In a Conjunction of the Soul to God in Knowledge of him Love unto him and return of his Love to us in a measure proportionable to the capacity of our Understanding and Will. This though it be not perfect but admits of increases yet ex natura rei may be proportionable to the most perfect operations of our Soul in the Body and doth
the Compositum yet it is clear that the Tumultuousness or Quietness of the Mind doth much conduce to the Happiness or unhappiness of the Compositum That Man that lives contentedly with 20. l. a year is happier than he that lives as well with the same or a greater Portion but with an anxious troubled craving unsatisfied Mind Now when the Soul truly knows and is truly set upon his Supream End it knows its duty and therefore is not idle it knows the Power of his Maker therefore is not anxious and knows the use and value of the Creature and therefore values it no farther than it is useful to its proper End it knows the Love and Wisdom of his Maker and therefore refers all to him as he that wants neither Power to provide for it nor Wisdom to proportion nor Love to communicate according to the exigence of my condition and admit he doth his Will must be done and not mine I am provided well enough for if here I am contented and hereafter saved this sweetens any Losses 4. Though the Great God be absolute Lord of his Creature and is not bound farther to him than it pleaseth him though his Creature were most conformable to his Will yet I do not think but if our Hearts were and did continue right set upon our great and Supream End and could hold to it that we should want a convenient Portion of these outward Blessings which would make our Lives comfortable and happy but here is the Misery of Man that any confluence of Externals presently take off his Soul from a perfect pursuit of our great End and fasten upon those Externals therefore the Wise God oftentimes cuts out to the best of Men a small and an unpleasant viaticum that they may not linger in the way to their great End. And as it is thus with the whole Compositum in this Life so in the Resurrection when the Soul shall be reunited to the Body both shall have a perfect Fruition of Happiness in the enjoyment of the Presence Favour and Communion of God. How far forth the Soul separated is capable of its own nature of any new knowledge which it had not before in an angelical way or how far it is able to retain or improve those Conceptions and Species that it had here and whether it hath a compleat operation or what degree of Fruition it hath of the sight of God it is above our reach to determine only this we may conjecture that the Soul is not placed in that perfect degree of being and subsistence as are the Angels in as much as it is made in order to a Body by which in it it exerciseth its motions faculties and operations and therefore without all question when it shall hereafter be reunited to a most perfect spiritualized Body indissolubly it shall not thereby receive any diminution or abatement of its Perfection and Felicity but will thereby become more capable of a more perfect and full Fruition of that Supream Good which will then be communicated perfectly to the whole Compositum But this by the way latius infra CHAP. V. Of the Means of attaining the Supream End of Man. HItherto we have proceeded in the examination of these 2. Parts 1. What the Nature of the Subject is of this Happiness and 2. What the Object of it Now the third thing rests to be sought viz. 3. What is the Means of attaining this Supream End of Man his Union to God and herein we shall examine these three things 1. What naturally might be conjectured to be the Means of acquisition of this Happiness 2. Whether as things stand with Man the same Means be to be found or no 3. If not then whether there be any Means left for Man to attain this Supream End of his or no and what it is and how to be known Touching the first Though God by his power might carry every thing to his proper mediate or ultimate End without the intervention of any Means yet as it is his own peculiar Prerogative by his Will to appoint every thing to its proper End wherein is seen the Glory of his Goodness so the same Will of his hath ordered hath appointed every thing to move to this End by a certain Rule and certain Means and herein is seen the Glory of his Wisdom such are the Instincts and Inclinations of the Creatures by which they move to their special Ends and Perfections And as these Inclinations are planted by God in the inferiour Creature the like was done though in a different manner in Men at first in all probability of Reason the difference being only thus in the Creature all that is conducing to their End is made a piece or quality of their Nature in Man not altogether as shall be seen We have found Man indued with two great Faculties Understanding and Will and in these principally consists the receptiveness of his Happiness and the motion to it 1. Touching the Vnderstanding it is a Faculty receptive of an Object that may be known but that Object is not of the nature or essence of the Understanding but distinct from it So that Man might be created an intellectual Creature yet till such time as naturally through the Senses or supernaturally by the immediate infusion or demonstration of God he was but rasa tabula The first thing therefore that was put into the Understanding in order to his supream End was a stock of Knowledge of God and of that Will of God which concerned Man. And this Will of God concerning Man was that Means which if known and pursued would guide a Man to true Happiness for as is before observed every thing is so far forth Beautiful and Happy as it holds Conformity with the Will of God and such is his Wisdom and Goodness that when the Creature moves according to the Law and Will of its Maker it doth without fail attain that Happiness whereof it is capable because it moves to that End for which it was appointed by the First Cause Now because God hath made Man a Rational and Intellectual Creature he appointed a rational and intellectual way to move him to this End viz. the Knowledge of himself and of that Rule or Law which should lead him to that End. 2. The Understanding being thus enlightned with the Knowledge of God and his Will the Will was endued with a Rectitude to move on according to that Rule in order to the right End and that which was in the Understanding sub ratione Scibilis was to the Will sub ratione Legis a thing not only shewn to the Understanding as the Means to bring him to Happiness but also injoyned to the Man as his Duty under pain of Guilt and Vengeance for herein consists the difference between the Instincts in the inferiour Creatures and this Law given to Man in those it is not properly a Law because they are not intellectual nor voluntary Agents therefore their receding from that
and consequently the Life to the Will of God the Mind of Christ for the same Spirit of Christ which dwells in Christ our Head dwells likewise in those that are the Members of the same Body and as the oneness of the Soul in Man makes that oneness of motion in all the Body and that Conformity that is in all its motions to the mind of the Soul so that oneness of the Spirit in Christ and his Members makes that Conformity of the Members of Christ unto the Mind and Will of Christ which is the uncreated Image of God This is Regeneration the birth of the Spirit the forming of Christ in us the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes 2.13 2. That whereof before is spoken Love unto God which is always the Soul of all true Obedience The Soul finds the Goodness and Rectitude and Beauty of God and of all his Commands and therefore out of a Judicial Love it is sensible of the ingagement that it ows to God and therefore out of Gratitude it will as far as the strength of the Soul can reach obey the Commands which are so Righteous of her God that is so Gracious It finds that it was the Purpose of God he created us unto good Works Ephes 2.10 that as many as are in Christ ought to walk as he walked 1 John 2.5 That the Son of God died to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 to purifie unto himself a People zealous of Good Works Tit. 2.14 That Christ hath ordained that his Disciples should bring forth Fruit John 15.16 That for this cause Christ died c. that from thenceforth they that live should not live unto themselves c. 2 Cor. 5.15 Now the true Love of God makes the Will of God to be his Will and the Glory of God his End if there were no Beauty in the thing commanded yet shall I dispute his Will that hath redeemed me shall I go about to disappoint him in the End of his Death for me ordinary Reason teacheth me to subscribe and yield Obedience to the Commands of God for they are all most Wise and most Just Commands and though I see not the Wisdom Usefulness and Justice of them yet the same Truth that tells me his ways are unsearchable and past finding out teacheth me to obey when I discern the Authority though not the Reason of the Command But if it were not so suppose I could be a loser by my Obedience I cannot lose so much as I have freely received from him that commands me When Abraham received a Son from the Goodness of God and God required him again Abraham obeys though his Obedience had left him as Childless as the Promise found him But the greatest Command that I can receive from my Saviour cannot return me to so bad a Condition as his Pity and Mercy found me in If he require my Riches my Liberty my Life yet he leaves me somewhat which without his Goodness I had lost and doth more than countervail all my other Losses even my Everlasting Soul When he requires these of me he pays me interest for them Matth. 19.29 But if he did not yet the Price of my Soul in ordinary Gratitude may deserve the life of my Body for what can a Man give in Exchange for his Soul Matth. 16 26. CHAP. XIII Concerning the putting off the Old Man and 1. What it is NOW concerning the putting off the Old Man two things are considerable 1. What this Old Man is 2. How we must put him off For the former it is nothing but that Ataxy Disorder and Corruption which by sin did fall upon our Nature It is not our Nature in its essentials for that is still good but the absence of the Goodness and Perfection of the reasonable Soul which consisted in the Conformity to the Will of God which is the Beauty and Perfection of every thing And from this disorder in the Soul proceeds the disorder in the Life and Actions And this Old Man hath a double strength and advantage uâ—on us 1. In it self the Corruption and Disorder is so universal that the whole Soul is bound under it it hath no supplies of its own to rescue it self for they are all corrupted it is therefore called a Dominion of Sin Rom. 6.12 a body of death Rom. 7.24 a Law of Sin bringing the Soul into captivity Rom. 7.23 2. Accidentally the Prince of the Power of the Air taking advantage of this confusion and disorder of the Soul gets as it were into it and so worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 inhabits it as his Castle and useth the Faculties of the Soul as the Weapons wherein he trusteth became a Ruler of Darkness in the Soul Eph. 6.12 Is Judas covetous the Devil gets into that covetousness and acts it even unto the betraying of the Lord of Life Luke 22.3 Is Peter lifted up upon his Master's atâ—estation of his Confession the Devil gets into that Pride and he becomes a tempter of our Redeemer Matth. 6.23 Is a Man immoderately angry the Devil gets into that Anger and will turn it into Malice Ephes 4.27 The Prince of the World could get no advantage upon our Redeemer he had nothing in him John 14.30 but so much of the Old Man as remains in us such a party hath the Devil in us to entertain nourish and actuate his temptations We shall therefore consider wherein this Corruptition or Deficiency in our Soul consists It is in every part and faculty of the whole Man as may evidently appear by tne enumeration of particulars 1. In the Vnderstanding there wants Light Rom. 1.21 Their foolish heart was darkened Ephes 4.18 And from hence the imaginations become vain Rom. 1.21 and not only vain but evil and continually evil Gen. 6.5 pursues unprofitable Curiosities Acts 19.19 Lusts of the Mind Ephes 2.3 Fables and impertinent Questions Tit. 3.9 1 Tim. 1.4 vain deceit Colos 2.8 It wants a capacity to discern things of greatest concernment 1 Cor. 2.14 the best habits of the Understanding are corrupt The Wisdom of the World is not only Foolishness 1 Cor. 3.19 but Enmity to God is earthly sensual devilish James 3.15 These and the like are the Old Man in the Understanding for the Light being either out or dim the actings of the Understanding are irregular and it is one of the great works of Christ in our renovation to give us the Spirit of a sound Mind 2 Tim. 1.17 2. In the Conscience This is the tenderest part of the Soul the receptacle of that Light and Authority of God which he hath left in us to be our Monitor and his Vicegerent Rom. 2.15 And yet the Old Man hath mastered and corrupted this also puts it awry or out 1 Tim. 1.19 defiles the Mind and Conscience Tit. 1.15 sears the Conscience so that it is insensible and past feeling Ephes 4.19 And if the Conscience be so vigorous as not to be stifled by means of this
is bitterness in the end fit to implore a Pardon and fit to receive it because it now knows how truly to value it And though thy greater sin deserve thy greater Sorrow yet thy very failings sins of daily incursion Erroâ— in Circumstances of Actions defects and wants of intention in Duties do all deserve as true Sorrow though not so great and therefore cherish and encourage thy Conscience to be vigilant in this by observing her rebukes even concerning these and let not the reflection of these pass without as particular an Humiliation of thy Soul before God for them for they are sins against the Duty and Gratitude thou owest to thy Creator and it will make thy future Conversation more exact and more comfortable sorrow of Heart for those smaller offences as it will make presumptuous sins the more hideous and the more abhorred so it will waste the number and measure of those smaller offences which like swarms of flyes cover our daily Actions of all kinds 3. To seek out for that which can only pacifie thy Conscience and remove thy Sorrow which cannot be but by removing the Guilt And now let thy Soul search the whole Compass of Heaven and Earth and where canst thou find any thing that can remove thy Guilt of the smallest sin imaginable but him alone against whom thou hast committed it and where canst thou find any means for obtaining remission from sins but by that means which he himself hath prescribed and where hath he prescribed any such means but in his Word and where in his Word but in his Son Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest If then I stay at home I find nothing within me but a troubled and chiding Conscience and it will be impossible for me to remove this Guilt I will therefore venture my Soul upon the free Promise of God in Christ and with the Lepers in the Famine conclude If he save me I shall live and if he kill me I can but die 4. To fall upon thy knees before the great God and to beg for thy Life and for thy Peace O Lord my sin hath brought a Guilt upon my Soul and that Guilt hath raised a Storm in my Conscience but if thou who art only offended and therefore canst only forgive speak the Word to thy Servant Be thou clean and to my Conscience Peace be still my Guilt and with it that Tempest that is within me will be removed Do it I beseech thee for thy Truth and Promise sake thou canst not owe Remission to thy Creature but thou hast been pleased to ingage thy self to thy Creature upon Repentance to have mercy and forgive and upon that Promise of thine will I hang though thou seem to reject me Do it for thy Mercy sake thou that hast commanded me to forgive my Brother till seventy times seven times if as often he turn and repent hast infinitely more Mercy towards thy Creature than thou requirest from it Do it for thy Glories sake thou hast said it is the Glory of a Man to pass by a Transgression and what can be glorious in thy Creature that hath not a resemblance of thy own mind and Image nay do it for thy Justice sake thou hast been pleased to give a publick Sacrifice for all our sins against thee even thy Son by an eternal Covenant with a Proclamation That whosoever will may come and take of the water of Life freely and thou hast been pleased as it were to deposite a Pardon in thy Sons hand for as many as come unto thee by him and to lay upon him that Chastisement of our Peace and though I like a Man have gone aside yet thy Gifts are without Repentance That satisfaction therefore which thou out of thy abundant Love wert pleased to give unto thy self I beseech thee accept and as it will be the Glory of thy Mercy so it will be the Honour of thine own Justice for if we confess our sins thou art Just as well as Faithful to forgive us our sins in him that was the price of our Peace Set a Watch upon thy Spirit As the Soul is the Life of the Body so the Spirit is the Life of the Soul that active Principle which works by the Will the Affections and Conscience This appears by the frequent Denomination of the Spirit and by its contradistinction to the very Soul Ephes 4.23 Spirit of the mind Prov. 18.14 The Spirit of a Man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 20.27 The Spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord. Prov. 16.2 The Lord weigheth the Spirits Eccl. 7.8 The patient in Spirit is better than the proud in Spirit Isaiah 57.15 to revive the Spirit of the humble 16. The Spirit should fall before me and the Souls which I have made James 4.5 The Spirit that is in us luâ—â—eth to liuâ—â—y Heb. 12 23. The Spirits of Just men made perfect 1 Thes â— 23 I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body c. Heb. 4.12 dividing between the Soul and the Spirit Rom. 8.16 The Spirit beareth witness with our Spirit And here we take not Spirit physically for those Instruments whereby the Soul works but for that Principle of activity which works in the Soul these Disorders that sit upon the Spirit principally are two 1. In the Defect Deadness and Depression in the Spirit The Spirit is that which only can hold Communion with God he that will worship him as he must worship him in Spirit and Truth so with his Spirit and without that mingled with thy Prayers they are dead and cannot come at him and without thy Spirit brought to his Word and to his Ordinances they cannot come at thy Soul. As the Spirits of thy Blood are those that unite sensible Objects to thy Soul so the Spirit of thy Soul is that which can only bring home Divine impressions from God to thy Soul or expressions from thy Soul acceptably to God. Upon such occasions awake thy Spirit and mingle it with thy Services and shake off that Dulness and Heaviness of Spirit it will make thy Prayers uneffectual and thy Services unprofitable 2. In the Excess Elation and Pride of Spirit And from this Capital disease in the Spirit proceed those others of Envy the Spirit that is in us lusteth after eâ—y The Spirit of Revenge Luke 9.55 Ye 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 what Spirit you are The Spirit of Murmuring and Discontent These are but the productions of the Spirit of Pride when it meets with any thing that crosseth it If it meet with any Person that sensibly exceedeth the Person in whom it is in worth esteem or other Accessions then it is turned into Envy and that Envy into Revenge And this was the very Original of the Devils immediate action upon our first Parents his Pride though it made him lower by his fall it made him not more humble And from hence
ariseth Murmuring and Discontent because that which befalls him crosseth him in his self opinion of his own Merit or Desert And from hence proceeds the rejection of God and of his directions from an opinion of a self-sufficiency and fulness To cure this Distemper and the products of it labour for Poverty and Humility of Spirit upon these Considerations 1. That whatsoever thou hast of worth or good in thee it is not thy own it is a derived good the good that is most thy own even thy essential good is not thy own thou owest thy Being to somewhat without thee But grant it were thine own yet the Comfort and Life and Beauty of thy Being were nothing without a farther good that is not thy own thy Power thy Wealth thy Strength thy Knowledge these are not in thy Essence they are derived Goods and such as are not from thy self the most exact faculty of thy Soul is but empty till it be filled by an Object without thee In thy highest Fruition thou hast a just occasion to magnifie God from whom thou hast it not to magnifie thy self that dost only receive it Learn therefore the Original of that good whatever it be that thou enjoyest it will make thee thankful and keep thee humble 2. That in thy self thou hast nothing but emptiness and vanity Thou hadst a good it is true which was sent thee by the Lord of thy Being and that we have shewn was no occasion to exalt thy self because it was not thine own but even that thou hast lost now and thy Nature hath nothing left thee whereof to be Proud. 3. That it is impossible for thee to come to enjoy that which must make thee happy till thou art deeply sensible of thy own emptiness and nothingness and thy Spirit thereby brought down and laid in the dust As long as thy Soul is full of thy Honour or of thy Wealth or of the World or of thy own Righteousness or Worth there is no room for thy Saviour or his fulness thou wilt not receive him because thou findest not any want and thou canst not receive him because thou hast no room And as it indisposeth thee to receive good from God so it indisposeth as I may say God to give it for thy Pride assumeth that both from God which is his and applies it to thy self even that acknowledgment and Honour which is a Tribute wholly and only due to God and hence it is that he resists the Proud because they rob him of the Duty that by all the Laws and Reasons immaginable thou owest to him 4. That the Grace of God the Knowledge and Sense of his Love the Spirit of Christ is an humbling Spirit the more thou hast of it the more it will humble thee and it is a sign that either thou hast it not or that it is yet over-mastered by thy corruption if thy Heart be still haughty it shews thee thy self in thy true Dress and makes thee abhor thy self it shews thee the Purity and Majesty of the great God with whom thou hast to deal and teacheth thee Fear and Honour towards him it teacheth thee to live by thy Saviour's Life to be righteous by his Purity to be saved by his Sufferings to walk by his Rule and to aim at his Glory it shews thee that thou hast all from him and frames thy Heart to return all to him It restores thee to that Position and Constitution in which thou wast made and takes off that distemper of Spirit which at once hath put thee below what thou wast and yet exalteth thy foolish Spirit above it There was a third Object of our Watch proposed viz. Temptations which are either 1. For Tryal 2. To Sin of which see the Meditations upon the Lord's Prayer Afflictions c. CHAP. XXIV Of the new Life or Sanctification and the necessity of it HITHERTO we have considered the Duty and Means of Mortification the putting off of the Old Man those Distempers and Disorders of our Souls by which they become unconformable to the Image and Mind of God the Principle whereof is the Spirit and Grace of God given us in Christ and the Means of this work those which we have before mentioned Now we come to consider of that New Life which follows hereupon most necessarily 1. Because it proceeds most necessarily from the same Principle As in a natural Man fallen into some Distemper it is the same strength of Nature that conquers the Disease and it being conquered maintains the Body in its natural Operations which is Health so the same vital power of the Spirit of God is that which overmatched those Distempers in our Soul which are contrary to our spiritual Life and Motion and conserves that Constitution of Health in the Soul by which it moves regularly and according to the Will of God which is our New Life 2. Because the Motion of those Distempers which fit in our Soul doth necessarily conform our Souls to that condition in which we were created God at first created us in a Conformity unto himself our sin brought an impotency upon our Nature by which we contracted all those Corruptions and Distempers that have disordered our Souls and diverted us from God when God is pleased by the power of his own Spirit purchased for us by the Blood of Christ to put into us a Principle of life and strength to work out those Corruptions and Disorders of our Souls there must necessarily follow a life conformable to the Will of God and as there is no Medium between Life and Death so when this Death of our Souls is removed by that Principle of Life there necessarily follows a New Life and new Operations answerable to it 3. The End of the Motion of those disorders of the Soul is in order to our New Life 1 Pet. 2.24 That we being dead to sin should live to Righteousness Ephes 2.10 Created in Christ Jesus unto good works It was the end of the Death of Christ Tit. 2.14 the Tree that bore wild Figs and that which bore none were equally cursed John 15.2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away So then the work of Mortification and Sanctification differ only in their Relations not in themselves they are both effects of that same Life which by the Spirit of Christ and our Union to him is wrought in us they both drive to the same End even to our Conformity to our Head Christ Jesus which is our Conformity to the Will of God wherein consists the Perfection of every Creature For this is the Will of God even your Sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 The Honour and Glory of God is and ought to be the supream End of all actions and things in the World. And this is that which every Creature in his right station and condition doth drive at according to the measure and degree of its natural perfection for as the great End of God in all his actions is his own
to him but he is but what he was before he had it and when he loseth it will be what he was before he left it in all points save meerly outside and vulgar opinion He looks upon himself under the Beauty of his external Ornaments as a little Clay drest up in Gallantry that that may more justly make him proud that made it than him that wears it that alters not the Soul or Body that is under it nor is become part of it he looks upon his Strength or Beauty or temperature of Body as that which a few years will lay in the Dust and the Worms will master it as that which is not able to contest with the least Distemper either within it or without it and yet the good that is in it while it lasts is but a borrowed good He looks upon his Knowledge Vnderstanding and Wisdom as that which is infinitely short of what it was or what it might be the most that we know being infinitely short of what we know not and what we should know that his increase of Knowledge is but an increase of his Account an aggravation of those sins which would be of lesser magnitude had they not been committed against a greater Light that the most of what we know and that makes up the most of Men great in their own conceits is that which will be utterly unuseful after this life Of what use will those Volumes of Learning concerning Human Laws Physicks the Mathematicks Natural Philosophy and the Knowledge of the Contemperation of mixt Bodies be when the Earth with the works thereof shall be burnt up Political dispensations shall cease either the things shall not continue and so the knowledge of them be useless or the truth shall be more compendiously and clearly discovered to us and so the Labour to acquire them unnecessary It looks upon the best practical Habits or Actions it doth as things that need an expiation rather than deserving a reward it finds in it self a little small Grain of Gold in them but so covered and stifled with dross and filth that that which is good is scarce worth the accepting Finally he looks upon nothing as his own but the sin of his Nature that hath stained and polluted the sin of his Life that makes him odious in the Presence of God the sin of his Services as that which adulterates and spoyls them and whatsoever is useful or comfortable in his external Accessions whatsoever is beautiful in his Body or Soul he looks upon as anothers not as his and blesseth him for it carries the glory to him takes upon himself the shame and abhorrence of his own Deformities and magnifies the patience of his Creator in sparing him and his bounty in lending to him whatsoever of good he finds in himself or any way belonging to him And out of this right and sober judgment concerning himself and the reflection of the mind thereupon spring those Vertues of Humility Meekness Gentleness Patience Moderation Contentedness Thankfulness Quietness whereby a Man entertains all the Dispensations of God with such a frame and Temper of Spirit as he expects In thy addresses to God it will teach thee Lowliness and Reverence remembring thee of thy own Vileness and his Perfection and that infinite distance between thee a Man a sinful Man and Him the great and glorious God Gen. 18.27 Now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord that am but Dust and Ashes Luk. 18.13 the Publican standing a far off would not lift up his eyes to Heaven In the midst of Blessings either of this Life or that to come it will teach thee Admiration and Thankfulness 2 Sam. 7.18 What am I O Lord and what is my Fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto Psal 8.4 When I consider the Heavens c. What is Man that thou art mindful of him that a sinful Man that owes so much to God and performs so little should receive such Blessings such Mercies and such Bounty from the hand of an injured God. In the midst of the severest Afflictions it will teach thee Patience and Quietness of mind and Contentedness when the Soul shall sit down and consider it self and justifie yea and magnifie God in this very dealing with her O Lord by that light that thou hast lent me I do see my self and therein behold nothing of my own but Deformity and Rebellion against thee unthankfulness and vileness and now I eat but the Fruit of my own ways and thou art just when thou judgest Nay thou dealest not with me according to the severest Rule of Justice thou hast punished me less than mine iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 I have forfeited all unto thee but thou hast not taken all from me I have deserved that thy whole fury should be poured out upon me but thou hast afflicted me in measure thou hast left me my life thou hast left me my hope thou hast left me some Light of thy Countenance which is better than my Life thou hast left me Liberty and Encouragement to pour out my Soul before thee and dost entertain it if thou hadst deprived me of all this yet thou hadst not been unjust and in that thou hast left me these or any of these or any other mercy thou art gracious Nay more than all this I find in that very thing wherein thy hand lyeth heaviest upon me a mercy and that thou hast afflicted me in very faithfulness Psal 119.75 in love Rev. 3.19 and for my profit and advantage Heb. 12.10 that I should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 my heart began to grow wanton to be lingring too much after the World to be taken up too much with Vanity and things that must perish to me and I to them I began to grow confident upon my Wit my Wealth my Power to grow negligent cold and careless in my Duty to thee in my Dependance upon thee in my Obedience to thee The Consolations of God the Presence of my Saviour my Life by Faith my hope of Glory began to grow small unto me Job 15.11 And this I plainly see was the state of my Soul and therefore I desire to receive these thy Afflictions not only as Punishments but as Medicines as Messages as well of thy care of me and thy mercy to me as of thy Justice upon me that they may not only be an exercise of my Patience but an Object of my Thankfulness of my Joyfulness that they may not only be a conviction of thy Detestation of my sin but a pledge of thy Love to my Person I shall therefore endeavour to bear thy hand as becomes me with Patience because I deserve them with Thankfulness because they are moderate and with Comfort because they are thy Ministers sent me for my good and as I shall thus learn to entertain them so I shall endeavour to use and improve them to that end thou sendest them to take me off from the World to bring me
436 1. Natural Page 436 437 2. The Word of God absolutely in it self Page 438 1. The Law 1. Moral Page 438 2. Ceremonial Page 441 3. Judicial ibid. 2. The Prophets Page 442 3. The Gospel which contains a most excellent Rule of Righteousness in 1. The Example of Christ Page 443 2. The Precepts and Counsels Page 444 Page 1. General 1. Love of our Neighbour Page 448 2. Doing as we would be done unto Page 456 2. Particular things Page 1. To be done Page 2. To be suffered 3. Parts 3. God. A Brief Abstract of the Christian Religion Page 461 Seasonable Considerations for the Cleansing of the Heart and Life Page 473 A DISCOURSE OF THE Knowledge of God and of our Selves PART I. By the Light of Nature CHAP. I. Of the Existence and Attributes of God. I. ALL things but the Soul it self are extrinsecal to the Soul and therefore of necessity the Knowledge of all other things is extrinsecal to the Soul for Knowledge is nothing else but the true impression and shape of the thing known in the Understanding or a conception conform to the thing conceived And although the Soul in its own nature be apta nata to receive such impressions and doth therefore naturally desire and affect it yet it is as impossible for the Soul to know till the Object be some way applied to it as for a Looking-glass to reflect without first uniting of a Species of some Body to it that may be reflected The Means whereby the Scibile or thing to be known is united to the Soul and consequently Knowledge is wrought is threefold viz. 1. Supernatural Thus Almighty God in the first Creation of Man did fasten certain Principles of Truth in Man by his immediate discovery especially the Knowledge of Himself and his Will which was properly the Image or Impression of God in his Understanding This was not essential to the Soul but a Habit or Quality which God put into his Understanding and therefore though his Knowledge decayed by his Fall yet his Soul continued the same 2. Artificial Thus Knowledge is derived from Man to Man by signs of those impressions of Truth c. that are wrought in his Understanding that communicates it Thus Knowledge is acquired by Writing Speech and other Signs that are agreed upon to communicate Intelligence from the understanding of one Man to the understanding of another though mediante sensu Thus the Reliques of the knowledge of God in Adam were derived to his Posterity though still it grew for the most part of Men weaker and corrupter 3. Natural And this may be divided into these three branches viz. 1. Simple Apprehension Thus when any object singly by the Ear or Eye or other Sense is let into the Phantasy and so shewn to the Understanding without either affirming or denying any thing concerning it 2. Complex Apprehensions whereby either duo scibilia are joyned together in an Affirmation or Negation and this is a Proposition which again is of two kinds viz. either that which is most universal and therefore the first proposition that is framed in the understanding viz. that it is or est or est ens For that notion doth necessarily and upon the first view of any object joyn it self with it in the understanding Other propositions are more complex or remote as that God is good c. For the first question in the Understanding is Whether it be to which that general proposition answers and in the next place What it is to which the second sort of complex notions answer Now of this second kind of complex notions there are two kinds viz. either such as without the help of any Discourse or Ratiocination present themselves from the object to the understanding as this The Man is red the Man and the red being both objects of Sense and meeting in the same subject or else such as either the thing affirmed or the thing whereof the affirmation is or both are things that do not immediately fall within our Senses as the Man is a substance or the Spirit is a substance These though originally derived from sense yet they are refined by the help of Discourse 3. Conclusions drawn either from these simple or complex apprehensions which flow into our understanding immediately by our Senses and this is Rational Discourse a Faculty or Power put into Man whereby he is beyond all other visible Creatures and whereby all his actions whether Civil or Religious are and ought to be guided This is that Power whereby we may improve even sensible Objects Apprehensions and Observations to attain more sublime and high discoveries and rise from Effects to their Causes till at last we attain to the First Cause of all things So we may conclude that the Knowledge of our Creator though it fall not within the reach of our Sense and so falls not immediately within the reach of our Understanding yet by the ascents and steps of Rational Discourse so much may be gathered as may leave an Atheist without excuse God having given to Man even in his lapsed condition besides other Providential helps a stock of Visibles and a Rational Faculty to improve that stock to some measure of the Knowledge of himself For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom 1.20 Therefore as on the one side we are to avoid curiosity in measuring the infinite Mysteries of Truth by our own finite Understandings so on the other side we must beware of Supineness and Neglect of imploying that treasure of God's Works and his Light or Reason in us to that end for which it was principally intrusted with us even the knowledge of our Creator yet still humbly concluding with Elihu Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me II. The first and most Magisterial Truth in the World upon which all other truths do depend is this That there is a First Being and Cause of all other Beings This is evident by clear Reason 1. Either we must admit a First Cause or else an actual infiniteness of Succession of Causes The latter is impossible in Nature because it is impossible there can be that which is infinite and yet successive for then it would follow That that which is actually infinite in number should be yet more infinite because there are new Successions on Causes and Causations Again it is impossible that there should be an eternal dependance of Causes one upon another without a First because then the whole Collection of those Causes taken all together must needs likewise be actually depending and if so then upon themselves and that is impossible for the immediate Cause of the Effect doth not depend upon its Effect but immediately upon its Cause Therefore this bundle of dependent causes must depend upon some one among them which is independent And impossible
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
End which may be had by them if pursued with due subordination to my great End. By what hath been premised we see a double difference 1. between bare Knowledge and Wisdom 2. between that Wisdom which is particular and that which is the Supream Wisdom The difference between the two former is 1. In their Object though every Scibile is the Object of Knowledge it is not of Wisdom 2. In the Use Many things are known only that they may be known but Wisdom is in order to Action and Motion to the thing known as profitable or from it as hurtful it is an act of practical Understanding not purely speculative The difference between the two latter that which is particular Wisdom is but temporary subservient principally to the Body subordinate and when it wants its due subordination proves irrational but the other is perpetual because fixed upon a perpetual End principally concerning the Soul supream and simple without mixture of any thing in it below Reason 3. Conscience Which is a high act of the Understanding for as Wisdom looks and moves forward by the right Rule or Principle to the right End so Conscience looks backward and measures the acts and motions of the Soul by these Rules or Principles and consists of three Propositions 1. It doth of necessity presuppose a Rule or Principle given unto Man directing him in his motion to his Supream End. We see all things natural have some Principle Instinct or Law whereby they are carried to their several Ends and Operations That which is in them an Instinct was to Man a Law because being indued with Understanding and Will he was susceptible of a Law which inferiour Creatures were not Now as the interruption of that Law or Rule in Natural things brings an Obliquity and Irregularity in their motions and so diverts them from that End to which otherwise they would arrive so the Violation of this Law or Rule given to Man doth at once subject him to a threefold Mischief 1. A Loss of that End which the regular motion according to that Rule which God gave him would have carried him unto for the Wise God having disposed all things to their Ends hath done it in and according to those ways which he hath prescribed them to move in to those Ends. 2. A Deformity and Vncomeliness contracted by the violation of that Rule When the Creatures came out of God's hands they were Good and Beautiful that Beauty and Goodness consisted in nothing else but a Conformity to the Will of God in their Beings Motions and Ends if any of that Conformity be altered there ariseth presently a Deformity uselesness and uncomeliness in the Creature The same it is with Man he received questionless a Rule to live and move to a most suitable End and conformable to the Will of the First Cause that ordered him to that End as long as he moves conformable to that Rule he moves according to the Will of his Maker to a most suitable End but when once he violates that Rule he contracts a Deformity Ataxy and Uncomeliness by such violation 3. An Obligation to some Positive Punishment annexed to the violation of that Law for let us suppose any Creature wanting Will and Understanding that did notwithstanding not move according to this Rule by this he would most clearly contract the two former viz. Loss and Deformity but where a Law is given to a Creature endued with these Faculties the violation of the Law so given includes in it not only a Privative Offence as I may call it to which a Privative Punishment may be answerable but a Positive Rebellion Rejection and Disobedience to that Duty and Subjection he owes and is enabled to perform to his Maker and therefore it is most just and rational that there should be added as a Sanction to that Law some Positive Penalty to revenge such a violation that as the Obedience to that Rule would carry a Man to a Positive Good so the Disobedience thereunto should be followed with more than a bare privation of that Good. This then is the first Proposition that is laid in the Understanding or Conscience this or that is Commanded to be done or omitted as the Rule or Law given by God to carry me to my supream End and Happiness the violation whereof subjects me to Loss of that Happiness to a Deformity and Discrepance to the Will of my Maker to the Curse or Sanction of that Law. Without the knowledge of this Proposition the great work or act of Conscience is asleep therefore it is necessarily to be presupposed for it is the supream Resolution of all Obligation in the World both of Laws Contracts and Oaths as appears before And according as this Principle is either true or false clear or dubious so are the actings and conclusions of the Conscience true or erroneous quick or dull It concerns us therefore to enquire How these Principles come into the Vnderstanding We find in the Creatures several Instincts incident almost to every Creature which are connatural with it We may observe likewise in Man dispositions and inclinations of several kinds common to whole Nations Climates Families which though they incline the Men to actions and carriages suitable to those several dispositions yet are not Laws or Principles of Nature These Principles therefore of the Divine Law called Natural Principles of Conscience are in the Understanding these ways 1. Supernaturally Thus Almighty God did at first give Man a Copy of his Will shewed to his Understanding and Will commanded him to obey it and this perfect discovery he made at first and when it decayed after the Fall of Man it is evident he did by Divine Inspiration and Revelation reinforce and discover it as appears by the holy History 2. Artificially by Tradition from the first Man to his Posterity and from one Man to another For though the first Man lost much of his Light and Knowledge by the Fall yet he was not without divers of those Principles which God at first shewed him 3. Naturally viz. by the help of Reason and Discourse for although if a Man were bred up from his Infancy without any manner of Instructions it would be very difficult for him to take up of himself any sound Principles of Nature yet I do believe that the Divine Law given to Man hath that Justice and agreeableness to right Reason that when once the motions of Reason had any materials of Observation to work upon it would incline such a Man though weakly to some though not all of those Divine Laws which were first perfectly written in the Heart of the first Man. The Precepts of the Divine Law though they be not congenite with us yet many of them are so rational and hold such a conformity with right Reason that Reason exercised would light upon some of them Hence several Nations that we know not ever to have had correspondence one with another yet agree in many Natural
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
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
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
as far exceed all other Happiness in the World as far as it falls short of that perfect Knowledge Love and sense of the Love of God which shall be enjoyed hereafter Were a Man from the highest Honour and Reputation in the World cast into the greatest Scorn and Ignominy that the most exact and exasperated Envy could impose or wish or were his Body laden with as many Necessities Miseries and Torments as Hunger and the most sublimated and ingenious Malice could inflict or contrive could as well the highest sense as the most imminent expectation of Death the greatest of Evils be felt and yet protracted for an age yet if under all this the Soul can look upon these Miseries as such as must end and see though at a distance a Fruition of an Everlasting Beatitude infallibly expecting upon the close of these Miseries the Expected Happiness is made Present by Faith and over-ballanceth the Present but Ending Misery How much more when in the instant of these Sufferings the intention and bent of the Soul is to her Maker and the Great God shall by the secret yet real beams of his Favour send into the Soul Messages of Acceptation and Love How small and low doth this render the highest Contempts and Malice of Men and Devils and how much rather would this Man choose to enjoy these effects of the Love of his Maker with these Miseries than barely to see the Experiments of his Power and Justice in removing or revenging them 2 How far forth this Union of the Soul to God doth conduce to the Happiness of the Compositum the Whole Man or Whether it doth so or no Wherein we say 1. That the Happiness that is answerable to the Compositum without considering the great relation of the soul doth consist in the perfecting and continuing of his subsistence and kind and whatsoever the Compositum desires and moves after it is in order to these and not otherwise as in that one instance of Meats the Wise God hath given him the Sense of Tasting whereby he takes delight in those things that please the Appetite but this is in order to the taking in of those Nourishments that may preserve the Compositum the like of the other Senses Now as long as the Man in these things moves to these Ends he moves naturally and orderly but when in stead of moving to this End he rests in the Means then he moves inordinately and out of the way to that temporal Happiness the support of the Body as when he eats and drinks to excess the like for all other outward matters as Honours Riches Women c. When they are not enjoyed to those Ends for which they are ordained then is the Man out of that way to the temporal Happiness of the Compositum viz. the due Support and Subsistence of it 2. That the Felicity of the Soul may consist with this Felicity of the Compositum ex natura rei The reason à priori hath been already given because the Wise God in the first Institution of things did order every thing to their several Ends with that Wisdom that there was no clashing of the several Ends of the same thing or of several things but one did and might Consist with the other the Felicity of the Soul might and ex natura rei may consist with the Happiness of the Body and Compositum Therefore it follows 3. That Inconsistency of the Happiness of the Soul with that of the Body is not real but because however it comes to pass we have misplaced and mistaken the Happiness of the Body we now place the Happiness of the Body in turning our selves over to Sensuality in excessive using of the Creatures in excessive Lusts These are clear mistakes for it is most apparent that these are enemies to the very subsistence of the Body and Composium 3. That this Felicity of the Body is inferiour to the Felicity of the Soul and therefore if ex accidente it falls out though it seldom doth in truth that the temporal Felicity of the Body is in hoc individuo inconsistent with that of the Soul right Reason tells us that the greater End and that of more concernment is to be preferred so that as there is and ought to be a subordination of those Faculties and Powers placed in the Body to those Ends for which they were implanted viz. the preservation of the Compositum so there ought to be a subordination both of these Means and that End to the Great End the Happiness of the Soul. 4. As the Great End of Man doth consist with the Happiness of his Body or Compositum so it doth much and effectually conduce to it And as this is apparent in the original creation of Man when the Happiness of his Mind by the Knowledge and Presence of his Maker was accompanied with the Felicity of his Compositum and as it was likewise apparent in his Fall as he contracted Misery in the one so he did in the other so it is most rationally evident in the present state and condition of Mankind as will be evident in consideration of these ensuing particulars 1. It shews a Man the right use of the Creature viz. to be subservient and in order to the preservation of the Compositum The want of a true and rational use of secular matters is a great cause of the great unhappiness of Man as when he desires Riches because he would be rich or Honours because he would be great or delicate Fare because he would eat Now when Men mistake the use of things resting in that as an End which is only useful to something else this breeds these disorders in and among men which doth disturb even their outward Peace and Happiness This is regulated when the Heart is set upon the Love of God it takes off any inordinate Love to any thing else but in order to that End to which it is properly conducible and therefore in order to that only rationally desirable 2. It adds a sweetness to the enjoyment of the Creature which cannot be had without it because it mingles with it the sight of the great Master of this Family of the Earth that provides it the sense and security of his Love that gives it and so brings up the enjoyment of the Creature to a higher station and nearer to that which is the true Felicity of the Soul. A Blue Ribon bought in a Shop and a Blue Ribon given by a King in token of Honour is the same thing but with the latter there is a mingling of somewhat else with it as it imports a Gift from a King in token of Honour and therefore higher-prized 3. It takes away all that Sollicitousness in the Enjoyment and all that Anguish in the Loss and all that Anxiety in the Provision of external Accommodations though in very truth the real Happiness of the Compositum is its subsistence according to the perfectest degree of his Being which is the perfection of
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
of his Knowledge of the things purposed though notionally they differ 6. It is an Vniversal Counsel and therefore Universal not because confused and indistinct but it doth particularly and distinctly extend unto all the things actions and motions in the World for to suppose any thing could happen or be without the particular determination of this Counsel would be an admission that that thing were independent upon his Power and would necessarily make an utter incertainty in the whole dispensation of the World and so disappoint his Providence It is most evident that the greatest Events in the World have depended upon a Compages and Concaâ—â—nation of several Interventions that in themselves have been most inconsiderable which if they had not been it had been impossible the Event though never so eminent could have happened David raised to be king of Israel a thing eminently in the Purpose of God yet had he not been sent to the Army with the Provisions for his Brothers the means of his Advancement and consequently the Advancement it self had been disappointed If therefore the same Counsel which had determined his being King had not determined his Message to the Army that great Effect had been utterly without the determination of the Divine Providence for that which de facto was the necessary Concurrent to his Advancement being casual and not within the care of Providence so must all the dependances that had been upon it And the same we must conclude in all the actions of Voluntary Agents Two Difficulties occur 1. How the Predetermination of the Acts of Voluntary Agents can consist with the Liberty of the Will 2. How the Predetermination of the Sinful Acts of Voluntary Agents can consist with the Justice or Purity of God Touching the former we conclude 1. That although Almighty God hath been pleased to give Voluntary Agents a Liberty of Will yet he may most justly of his absolute Power interrupt that freedom when and in what he pleaseth The reason is He is absolute and unlimitted Lord of his Creature and in as much as the Creature can have no Being but by his Will he cannot claim any Right but what consists with his Maker's Will if he wills an interruption of that course which he hath regularly settled that interruption is as just as that course which he interrupteth for both equally depend upon the same Will. 2. That though he may most justly if he please alter that course which he hath settled in Natural or Voluntary Agents yet such is his Will that he doth it not but hath been pleased to hold that course in Natural but especially Voluntary Agents that they move according to that Liberty with which he hath endowed them 3. That nevertheless all the voluntary actions of Men fall under the Predetermination of his Counsel otherwise it were impossible but that the World should be governed at random the contrary whereof is most clearly evidenced by daily observation and several passages of the Holy Scripture and by what hath been before observed 4. It is evident that this Predetermination of the Divine Counsel is without any Violation of the Liberty of a free subordinate Agent because the Action predetermined is elicited by such means as at once consisteth with the infallibility of Divine Providence and the nature of the Agent The great motive and object of all the actions and aversions of Men is Good and Evil the great means whereby Men are carried unto these actions or aversions are Convictions of the Understanding arising from the union of these Objects to the Understanding the act of the rational Appetite or Will following that Conviction if not perturbed the Passions or Affections partly managed by the command of the Will partly by the temper and constitution of the Body And certainly if one Man had an exact knowledge of the frame temper and constitution of another Man and had power to apply his Object so exactly to his Understanding and Affections as to meet with them exactly and could discover the motions of the Soul upon that Object proposed and could apply to every opposition a suitable answer or qualification this Man might easily predetermine what the other should do and yet in drawing out that action no way injure his Liberty How much more can the Infinite and Omnipotent God who put that Liberty Understanding and Affections in Man positively predetermine such an act to be done and yet draw out that act by such means by him decrâ—â—d as may notwithstanding suit with the Liâ—â—â—ty of his Will the freedom of the action being no less predetermined than the action it self Especially if we consider the Power of this God in adding or withdrawing of the extrinsecal Helps and Concurrences of his own immediate Assistance which have a more intimate and powerful operation upon the Soul than barely objective which yet hurts not nor hinders the intrinsecal Freedom of the act of the Will. 2. To the second question concerning the Counsel of God touâ—â—ing Sinful Actions We are to consider therefore that Sin is the Violation of a Law given unto a Voluntary Agent by him that hath power to give that Law to the Will. In this description we have those several terms all necessarily to be admitted before there can be any Sin 1. A Law given for where there is no Law there can be no Transgression 2. A Vâ—luntâ—â—y Agent to whom this Law is given for it is impossible that any thing can be capable of a Law properly but a voluntary Agent because the proper Effect of a Law is to put an extrinsecal Restraint Under a Penalty upon that which hath choice to obey it or not Natural Agents though they move according to a Rule the interruption whereof causeth a Deformity yet they move not by a Law and therefore not capable of Sin. 3. An Authority in him that gives the Law to give it to the Will. A Man that hath an extrinsecal Power over me without my consent may give a Law to me and exact the Obedience of it but the Violation of this Law is no sin because he hath no power upon my Will but God hath a power to command my Will and exact Obedience of it Hence it is that there can be no Sin but against God because all Obligation is reductive only to him 4. A Violation of that Law by the act of the Will and herein we have two things 1. The Subject denominated that is the Action which precisely considered cannot be sinful but it is therefore sinful because it is the product of my Will contrary to this Law. Hence it is that no action that is enforced can be said to be sinful and every evil action hath so much of sin in it as it hath of Will and doth receive degrees of Evil according to the measure of Consent and Concurrence of the Will. And hence it is that the Act of the Will against that Law is equally sin as if it had proceeded into act which was
that most rational and clear Doctrine of our Saviour 2. The thing denominating that action sinful it is the Obliquity of the act of the Will for the last act of the Will which preceeded the action is the Sin and the action divided from that act of the Willing is not nor can be sinful It is therefore called a sinful action because it is the fruit or expression of an act of the Will moving contrary to this Law of God. And by this it is evident that the Sin is not inherent in the external action produced by the Will but in the Will it self and that the Sin hath a pre-existence such as it is in the Consent of the Will before the action is produced And according to the measure of the freeness and fulness of that Consent is the measure of the Sin and not according to the action though it be regularly true that that consent of the Will that is strongest produceth most ordinarily an action Hence it is that an action contrary to the Command of God produced either through Incogitancy Fear Surprize Passion is not so great a sin as a deliberate studied resolved Sin though in truth it be not produced into act by reason of some extrinsecal impediment because there is a fuller Consent of the Will in the latter than in the former These things being premised we may conclude 1. God's Counsel doth not predetermine the Will to any evil for although it is true the Obligation of a Law is the necessary Antecedent of every Sin and it is impossible that the Laws which God gives to man do bind the Law-giver yet this is inconsistent with his Purity Truth and Justice Inconsistent with his Purity for certainly there is an intrinsecal Justice and Holiness in the Law of God whereof he cannot cause the Violation Inconsistent with his Truth the Will of his Counsel never crosseth the Will of his Command Inconsistent with his Justice to require an Obedience to that Law whereof he doth necessitate the breach And in this case predeterminating the Action by way of necessitating the Will and to predetermine the Obliquity differs little 2. Much less doth he infuse Obliquity or Evil into the Will to serve the Series of his Counsels But then it seems the Evil Actions of Men are out of the Counsel of God or God must take up new Counsels upon the Vision or at least Prevision of the actions of Men. No But here we must remember what hath been before premised that here is seen the great Justice and Wisdom of this Counsel that it puts nothing off from that manner of operation wherewith the God of Nature hath endued it Thus he draws out infallibly the action of a free Agent even in things sinful and yet the Will moves freely in what it doth and consequently owes that Sin to it self The Counsel of God is active in these particulars 1. Proposing of an Object The Babylonish Garment was no cause of Achan's sin for it was propounded to him meerly objectively and was passive to his Choice 〈◊〉 Permitting extrinsecal Moral Perswasions unto 〈…〉 This is Temptation Adam was created without 〈◊〉 yet with Liberty to sin He was left wholly in the hands of his own Will here was an Object presented the fruit was fair to look upon and Moral Perswasions by the Devil that there was no danger that it would make them wise the Man eats This is most clearly a most free act for neither the proposition of the Object nor Perswasions do any way derogate from the freedom of the action God could in his Counsel have intercepted the Object or impeded the Perswasion he doth neither the sin is committed and that without the least colour of imputation to the Counsel of God for the Man's Will was not necessitated he sinned freely 3. By withdrawing those efficacious Aids of his Grace and Dispensation which especially since the Fall of Man are the great impediment to that Career of sin that Man would run And this is no violation of Man's Nature or Freedom for they are extrinsecal to his Nature and therefore not due to him nor is he injured if withdrawn from him especially since for the most part Man thrusts them away before they are taken Such are the outward dispensations of his Providence in Education Affliction Prosperity the Preaching of his Word Advice of Friends giving external Allays to the humours of the Body These and the like God lends to the Sons of Men and may take them again when he will. And as he hath such outward operations so without question such is the Vicinity of God to our Souls that there are Secret Inward Perswasions sent in by the Power of God to our Souls which as they do not violate the Liberty of our Wills but direct them so they are not due to the Creature debito justitiae and may be withdrawn without injustice 4. By Ordering it Thus the Wise God oftentimes brings Good out of Evil by the restraining the sin quo ad hoc by the Dispensation of his Providence as a wise Politician will order the Ambition Cruelty Lust c. of Men for bringing good to the Common-wealth The Depravation of Man's Nature is Universal and like as the Water would diffuse it self over the whole Surface in the pursuit of its own motion and Nature so the corrupted Nature of Man being now become universally evil would diffuse it self in all disorders but as a wary Artist will by external Provisions not only confine this natural motion of this extravagant Element to this or that course but also make its natural motion serviceable for artificial ends so the Wise God doth not only set Bars and Doors and saith to this Sea of Mischief Hitherto shalt thou go and no farther and here shall thy proud Waves stay but also so manageth the same that whiles Man sins he works his Creator's Will which he knows not O Assyrian the rod of mine anger c. howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few Isa 10.7 A sinful and unthankful Israel deserves a punishment an ambitious and cruel Assyrian flies at all opportunity of Rapine and Spoil the Wise God shuts him up upon all sides but that which is towards Israel and there he finds a passage and breaks out satisfies freely his own ambitious ends which only he pursued yet fulfils the Will of our Creator which he knew not nor thought of This also cometh from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working Those ways of God and the manner of his Concurrence in those actions are evident in Scripture Exod. 7.3 I will harden Pharaoh 's heâ—rt c. Verse 11. They cast down their rods and they became Serpents c. and he hardened Pharaoh 's heâ—rt that he hearkened not unto them Exod. 8.15 When Pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardened his heart and
Deut. 8.3 is due to this Word of Command and Benediction that the Lord at first spoke to the Creature Now concerning the particular Creation of Man not to enter into the consideration of the manner of his Creation his Essentials the Body the Soul or the nature of either but we shall enquire What is meant by the Likeness or Image of God There was a twofold Image of God 1. Essential viz. A participation in his very Essence of a Conformity to the Divine Nature which consisted in three particulars 1. That he had an Immortal Soul this is that which Wisdom 2.23 is called the Image of his Eternity 2. That he was an Intellectual Being 3. That he was a Free Agent These being essential to Man were not lost by him and for this reason God required the same severity against Murder as if Man had never fallen Gen. 9.6 For in the Image of God made he Man. 2. An Accidental Image which consisted in an adventitious Perfection which God added to Man. 1. Dominion Gen. 1.26 And let them have Dominion c. So God created Man in his own Image The Dominion which he gave to him made him resemble God and hence it is that those that have power of Command are called Gods Exod. 4.17 And thou shalt be to him instead of God. Psal 82.6 I have said ye are gods Vid. Gen. 9.2 This Dominion consisted not only in his Power to inforce his Commands by the advantages of Wit and Strength above other Creatures but likewise in a Subjection in the Creatures to his Dominion 2. An incorruptible Union between the Body and the Soul Gen. 2.17 The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Hence Rom. 5. the Apostle concludes Death the fruit of Sin. This might have been either by reason of the excellence of his natural Constitution or by supplying it with special Assistance by which means the Lives of the Fathers before the Flood had so long a duration or by assuming of him into Heaven without any dissolution of Soul and Body as was Enoch Gen. 5.24 3. A filling of the Intellectual Faculty with the Light and Knowledge of all things especially of his Maker And herein consisted his high degree of Happiness But as the Object or the Union of the Object to the Faculty is not of the Essence of that Intellectual Nature wherein that Faculty resides but may be removed without any essential change so was this and that herein consisted the Image of God appears by Colos 3.10 The Renovation by Christ which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him 4. Holiness or Conformity of the Will to the Will of God. This appears likewise by the state of Renovation Epes 4.24 Put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness which as it presupposeth a true Knowledge of the Will of God so it was a free choice of Obedience to it This was not essential to the Will because the Will was essentially Free but had been necessary to the Will in case the Understanding had not been abused CHAP. IV. Of the Providence of God in special concerning Man in order to his supream End. THUS much shortly touching the Creation and Man's Constitution in it the second part of the Dispensation of this Counsel is God's Providence and herein we shall pass over that part which is the General Providence of God and consider of that Special Providence or Dispensation of Divine Counsel which concerneth Man and that not meerly as a Creature but in order to his everlasting End. We shall consider therefore the course of this Providence of God in order to the Eternal End of Man under those three Conditions or Times wherein we find Man Before the Fall After the Fall In Christ Concerning the estate of Man before the Fall or sin of Adam we have already examined certain Generals that are conducible to this point viz. 1. That God did appoint Man to some End or Good answerable to the constitution and value of his Nature and this is his Happiness 2. That this Good must therefore be an Infinite Immortal Intelligible Good otherwise it could not be answerable to the Nature of Man. 3. That there is not nor can be any such Good but only God. 4. That the Actual Enjoyment of this Good is by the Union of the Soul to God and the Communion of God to the Soul. 5. That the only Means of attaining this Union and Communion must needs be such and such only as the Will of God pleaseth to appoint We shall now descend to these two particular Inquiries viz. 1. What was that great End or Happiness which Man did or might enjoy in his created condition 2. What was the Means whereby to attain and keep that Happiness 1. Concerning the former viz. What was Man's Happiness in his Creation we shall consider him in those three degrees of Living which he had 1. As a Vegetable Creature an exact Constitution and temper of Body which though naturally corruptible yet by the interposition of the Divine Power not subject to corruption those things that were for his use and sustentation the Air the Water the Fruits of the Earth most exactly conducible to the perpetuating of his Life without Pain or Sickness 2. As a Sensible Creature Exquisiteness of Sense and receptive of whatsoever the Creature could afford conducing to his Use or Delight and the Creature likewise fitted for the supply of those Senses every Herb given him for Food all the Creatures came to him to receive their Names he had Dominion over them a most pleasant Garden planted by God himself for his Habitation with a Tree of Immortality in it 3. As a Rational Creature 1. A most just and sweet Subordination of the inferiour Faculties to the superiour the sensitive Appetite the Passions and Motions of the Spirits 2. A most exact fitness and perfection of those Organs of the Body which are necessary for the operations of the Faculties of the Soul and a perfect and just Union of the Body and Soul whereby the Soul might clearly and perfectly exercise all her Faculties 3. Which is the height of all the rest fitting of those Faculties with the most perfect and suitable Object even God himself for all Faculties or Powers receive their perfection by their Objects to have an Understanding as comprehensive as Heaven to have a Will of as vast Desires as infinitude it self and not to have an Object suitable to either were a greater Unhappiness than to want the Faculties In the Creation therefore God filled the Understanding with the sight and knowledge of Himself of his Majesty Glory Bounty Goodness with the knowledge of his Will and Mind concerning Man with the knowledge of his Works and of his Workings This could not chuse but work in the Mind of Man answerable returns to the nature of this Object He is fully conceived to be the highest and most supream Good and
an actual exercise of right Reason they have in all successions of times and places taken up those Laws of Nature which we call the Moral Law or the most parts of them 2. Touching the-Obligation of these Laws it was twofold 1. From the Injunction and Command of God who had an Universal Infinite and Unlimited Power over his Creature and might most justly require his Obedience And into this Power of God together with his actual Command or Prohibition is all the Obligation of all Laws whether Natural or Positive and of all inferiour Laws Compacts or Agreements to be resolved And without the due consideration of this Mankind is loose Though the natural Congruity of the Moral Law to the Nature of Man might be the means of its Publication it is the Command of God that is and ever was the cause of its Obligation 2. From the Compact and Stipulation of Man. God put into Man's hands a stock both of Blessedness and Liberty and though he might have commanded his Creature and it had bound eternally yet to add the greater engagement upon him he enters into Contract with him concerning his Obedience Hence it is called the Covenant of Works And in all ensuing times when it pleased God to reinforce the Law of Nature or Obedience he doth it by way of Compact or Covenant as well as Command to add another Obligation as well of Contract as Duty And from this grew the Universality of the Guilt that was contracted by Disobedience Adam covenanted for him and his Posterity Rom. 5.19 As the Obedience of Christ is effectual for his Seed by way of Contract and Stipulation with God the Father so was the Disobedience of Adam binding upon his Seed partly by reason of his Contract and Stipulation and so they are made there parallel Sed de hoc infra 3. The Sanction of the Law given to Adam The Violation of any Law given by him that hath Power contracts Guilt that is Obligation to Punishment the measure of this Punishment is that Sanction which God did put upon the Violation of this Law Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die Herein are four Particulars 1. The Offence eating the forbidden Fruit 2. The Punishment Death 3. The Time of the inflicting of it in the day 4. The Extent of it thou shalt die c. Touching the first The thing specially prohibited was eating the forbidden Fruit but that which was in the Mind of God to enjoyn was Obedience to his Command and although this particular was by God made the Experiment of Man's Obedience yet questionless the same Injunction and under the same Penalty was given to Men touching those other Moral Dictates which were received Exod. 20. which lost not their Obligation by the Fall of Man no more than if he had continued in his Integrity Gen. 4.7 If thou dost not well Sin lieth at the door and Verse 14. Cain acknowledgeth Death to be the consequent of that Guilt which he contracted by his Murder Every one that findeth me shall slay me The like of Lamech Verse 23. For the Formality of any Sin as hath been before observed consisteth in the disobedience of the Will to the Command of God By one Mans disobedience sin entred into the World. And as the object of Mans obedience was whatsoever God had injoyned so the disobedience to any one Command had contracted the like Guilt and were under the like Penalty as this though this being purely a positive Command wherein only the Obedience or Disobedience of Man could be seen was that which is here mentioned because that wherein he offended 2. Thou shalt die God made not Death saith the wise Man Wisd 1.14 but Death entred into the world by sin Rom. 5.12 It imports three things 1. A loss or loosning of that strictness of Union which was between the Body and Soul or temporal immortality This is the Argument that the Apostle makes that from the time of Adam's transgression till Moses sin was in the World because Death reigned all that while and in the place before mentioned till sin the Kingdom of Death was not upon the Earth This immortality was not essential to the Nature of man but was freely super-added to it by the Divine Will upon those terms of Obedience and he that gave it might with all imaginable Justice give it upon what terms he pleaseth and he doth it upon terms of Obedience Obedience to himself which but even now gave Man his Being and might justly exact the utmost of his Being Obedience to a Law most possible easie and quadrate to the Powers and Aids given to man Obedience ingaged by a world of Blessedness attending it and an inevitable loss ensuing the breach of it This was his Vegetable loss 2. A loss of that Happiness which accompanied this immortal Being in respect of his Senses viz. an uninterrupted stream of Pleasure and Contentment and instead thereof Shame Gen. 3.7 Pain and Slavery Verse 26. Sorrow Verse 17. anxious and painful Labour Verse 19. a Curse upon the Earth Verse 17. A loss of Eden Verse 23. 3. The withdrawing and stopping of that stream of Light and Love that passed between God and the Soul of man which filled his reasonable faculties brimful of Happiness and Contentment and instead thereof in the understanding darkness distractedness a continued motion to know and yet for want of Light not knowing what to pursue and therefore pursuing trifles and follies In the Will loss of the Good that it before injoyed yet a craving Appetite after somewhat but it knows not what and to satisfie this unsatiable desire takeâ— in whatsoever the Suggestions of the World Flesh and the Devil offers fills it self with Vanity and then with Vexation In the Affections especially our Love it hath lost what did take up the whole Vigour and Comprehension of it and what it loved it injoyed but now raves and boils like the Sea after Follies and changeable and unsatisfying pursuits The Conscience that Chamber of the Soul wherein the beams of the Light and Favour of the Creator and of the Love and Duty of the Creature met as it were in the point or angle of reflection and carried those comfortable Messages of Sincerity and Obedience of the Soul to God and delight and acceptance from God to the Soul is now become the Chamber of Death and like the Spleen to the Body the receptacle of the Melancholy and sad Convictions of a guilty and ungrateful Soul and of an injured and revenging God and pre-apprehensions of farther Misery But if in the midst of Millions of Miseries he could see his Creator inviting him to dependance and recumbance upon him the Miseries were nothing they are born by his strength upon whom he leans But when the Lord of Heaven shall give him a trembling Heart and failing of Eyes and Sorrow of mind as in that most lively Expression he threatens the Jews Deut. 28.65 66 c. and when he
in his Friend scorn and oppression from his Superiour supplanting from his Equal envy and mischief from his Inferiour falsness and temptation from the Wife of his Bosom rebellion from his Children vanity and disappointment in his Purposes Diseases Distempers and infections in his Body madness and blindness in his Understanding perverseness in his Will tumult and confusion in his Affections guilt and preapprehensions of terrour in his Conscience Death and dissolution of Body and Soul and Judgment Vengeance Hell and yet Eternity after all this Then let Man know that in all this and that which is all this and more than this the Aversion of the Favour and Light of the Countenance of God he eats but the Fruit of his own ways and thou O God art just when thou thus judgest and whatsoever is better than the worst of all this to any of the Children of men is meer Mercy and more than their due But if now in the midst of Judgment God remembers Mercy and Mankind being now condemned and concluded under sin if the merciful God that at first gave Being and Blessing shall after we had spent that Patrimony and lost our selves provide for our Restitution that when we of Free-Men had made our selves Slaves and Vessels of Wrath shall provide a Means for our Deliverance This engageth us to a higher degree both of Admiration and Duty than even our first Creation did This then is the next thing considerable viz. The means and way of Man's Restitution CHAP. V. Of the Restitution of Man by Christ ALL Mankind lay by the Fall under Guilt which is an Obligation to Punishment both of loss of Happiness and everlasting subjection both to temporal and eternal Curse And this estate of Man and his Posterity even to the end of the World was present in the infallible Foresight of God from all Eternity In that consideration he had a Kingdom but over Rebels and Traitors and had everlasting cause of the execution of his Justice and the Power of his Wrath but nothing to deserve or draw out his Mercy among all the Sons of Men who were all present and stood up together in his Eternal Foresight Thus Man had as far forth as was in him disappointed the End of God in his Creation insomuch that in the outward dispensation of God's Providence it seemed that he repented that he had made Man on the Earth Gen. 6.6 But though Man as much as in him lay had made himself an useless Creature and interrupted the possibility of attaining an End answerable to his Being yet God's Counsel was not disappointed But the great Lord of his own free Goodness did in his Eternal Counsel fore-appoint some of lost Men to Remission of their Sin and eternal Happiness in Christ by such Means as he had before ordained to be effectual for that purpose And this is the great Discovery of the Scripture and contains that great Business which Man hath to do in this World because it is that which concerns his great and everlasting End without which his very Being is not only unprofitable but miserable and now comes to be consider'd This then is the sum of all That Almighty God out of his own Free-will and Goodness did in his Eternal Counsel fore appoint some of lost Mankind to Remission of sin and guilt and Reconciliation and Eternal Happiness in Christ by such Means as he had before ordained in the same Counsel to be effectual for that purpose In this description we have these Particulars to be sifted and we have done our Business 1. What the Motive of this Purpose God's meer good Will 2. What the Object of it some of Mankind 3. What the End of this Counsel Remission of sin and Restoration to Happiness 4. What the Hand or immediate Instrument of effecting it Christ 5. What those subordinate Means of attaining it 6. What the Consequents of it 1. Touching the Motive nothing at all meritorious in Man but only the good will of God thus to select some out of the lost multitude of Men to be Vessels of Mercy And this is that which is so often inculcated in the Book of God in all the successions of it Exod. 33.19 I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy So Deut. 9.5 Moses's sad Admonition to the Jews who in all things were typical Vnderstand therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land for thy righteousness for thou art a stiff-necked people Ezek. 16.6 When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live. Isaiah 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Luke 10.21 And hast revealed them to babes even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Ephes 2.3 When we were by nature children of wrath even as others But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by grace are ye saved 2 Tim. 1.10 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began but now made manifest by the appearing of Christ 1 John 4.10 Here is love not that we loved God but that he loved us Ibid. 19. We love him because he loved us first Rom. 5.8 God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us And indeed it is impossible it should be otherwise for the Scripture hath concluded all under sin Galat. 3.22 And we have shewed before an utter impossibility in Man to extricate himself The fore-appointing therefore of any to Eternal Life could not be from any Cause in the Creature meritoriously moving God to this Mercy The Freedom and Liberality of this Purpose of God. 1. In respect of the Elect to take away all matter of boasting Ephes 2.8 To keep them humble and to keep them thankful that God may be all in all It pleaseth the great God to order the Execution of his Counsels touching Man that they are brought about as with a powerful and irrisistible Hand so they are brought about by such means as is naturally suitable to the nature of Man Rationally and Freely Psal 110. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy Power Now there cannot be a more engaging Argument to Humility and Thankfulness than the consideration of this Free Goodness of God that when I had thrown away my Happiness lay in the common lump of condemned Men God should freely single me out among thousands that he passed by and make me a Vessel of Mercy And this doth most sweetly and effectually win upon the Heart So
And the suffering of Christ without the Gate was not without some Allusion to the placing of this Altar without the Tabernacle Vide Heb. 13.12 And as the situation of the Altar so the Sacrifice upon this Altar not without a Mystery for besides those many Sacrifices which were diversified according to the several natures of the Occasion here was one Sacrifice appropriate to this Altar the continual Burnt-Offering a Lamb of the first year in the Morning a Lamb of the first year at Even Exod. 29.38 Numb 28.3 And the Spirit of Truth takes up this description of Christ more frequently than any John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world 1 Pet. 1.19 Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish or spot Revel 5.6 The Lamb that was slain c. Revel 13.8 The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And between this Altar and the Sanctuary stood the Laver of Brass not only typifying the Sacramental Initiation by Baptism but that Purity and Cleansing that is required of all those that partake of this Altar before they enter into the Sanctuary John 3.5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God As the Blood of Christ cleanseth from the Guilt of our Sin so it cleanseth us from the Power of our Sin before we are to expect an admission into the Sanctuary It was as well Water to cleanse as Bloud to expiate 6. The typifying of Christ in the Priesthood of Aaron and his Successors High Priests Divers of the Ceremonies especially in the Consecration of them were meerly relative to their natural pollutions and the cleansing of them Heb. 7 27. Offering Sacrifices first for their own Sins such was the Sin-offering Levit. 9.7 Levit. 8. â—4 Others in reference to their service and designation thereunto and exercise thereof as their washing with Water Levit. 8.6 Their anointing with the holy Oyl Ibid. Verse 12. The Ram of Consecration Ibid. Verse 22. Their residence at the door of the Tabernacle seven days Ibid. Verse 33. And some parts of his Garments But there were some things that in a special manner were typical of Christ 1. The Breast-plate of Aaron bearing the Names of the Children of Israel called the Breast-plate of Judgement Exod. 28.29 And Aaron shall bear the Names of the Children of Israel in the Breast-plate of Judgment when he goeth into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually importing not only the nearness of the Church and redeemed of Christ unto him but also his continual presenting of their Names their Persons in his Righteousness before his Father 2. The Plate of Gold upon the Mitre engraven with Holiness to the Lord Exod. 28.38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of their holy things that they may be accepted before the Lord. As our Persons are accepted by God in the Righteousness of Christ presented for them to his Father so our Services are accepted in the strength of the same Mediation Christ presenting our Prayers and Services to his Father discharged of those Sins and Defects with which they are mingled as they come from us 3. His Solemn Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies Levit. 16. Wherein we shall observe 1. A most special Reconsecration almost of all the things incident to that Service before it was performed the Priest was to make an Atonement for himself by the Blood of the Bullock Verse 11. and for the Altar Verse 18. which signifie that Purification of the Humane Nature of Christ from all Sin Original and Actual from all Sin even in his Conception that so he might be a fit High Priest Heb. 7.26 For such a high priest became us who is Holy Harmless Vndefiled Separate from Sinners and made higher than the Heavens The difference was this Aaron notwithstanding his first Consecration to his Office needed a new Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies and exercised that high Type of Christ's Ascension and Intercession But Christ being once Consecrate needed no new Consecration Heb. 7.28 For the Law maketh men High Priests which have infirmities but the Word of the Oath which was since the Law maketh the Son who is Consecrated for evermore 2. This was to be done but once in the year Some services had frequent iterations but those special Services that were but once in the Year were Types of those things that were to be done but once though remembred yearly such was the killing of the Passover Christ by one Offering hath perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 3. This great Atonement not made but by Blood Heb. 9.7 The high Priest entred not without Blood Livit. 26. And this Atonement was to be made upon the Horns of the Altar Levit. 16.18 viz. The Golden Altar of Incense Exod. 30.10 Hence Christ called the Blood of sprinkling Hebr. 12.24 The Offering that was to be used in this solemn Atonement for so much as concerned the Sins of the People were two Goats which were to be presented before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle Levit. 16.7 And Lots to be cast one for the Lord the other for the Scape-Goat the former was to be the Sin-offering for the People and his Blood to be brought within the Veil Verse 23. And the other was to bear the Iniquity of the Children of Israel but to be sent into the Wilderness Ibid. Vers 21. Although in the Sacrifice of Christ his Body only died and his Soul escaped yet both were but one Sacrifice he did bear our sins in both his Soul was heavy unto death as well as his Body crucified and as God had prepared him a Body in order to this Sacrifice Heb. 10.5 So he made his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa 53.10 4. As after all this the Priest entred into the most Holy and presented this Blood of Reconciliation before the Mercy Seat and no Man was to be in the Tabernacle when he goeth in Levit. 16.17 So Christ having trodden alone the Wine press of his Father's Wrath Isaiah 63.3 Is entred into the Holy Place not made with Hands now to appear in the presence of God for us Hebr. 9.24 And as the People did representatively by their Mediatour Aaron pass into the Holiest so our High Priest hath consecrated for us Access into the Holiest by a new and living way through the Veil of his Flesh Hebr. 10.20 Who as he is our Advocate with the Father John 2.1 To bear our Names before him as the High Priest did the Names of Israel to present his own Blood before the Father of Mercy as the High Priest did the Blood of the Sin-Offering before the Mercy Seat to bear the Iniquity of our holy things as the High Priest did upon his Forehead so likewise to present our Prayers to the Father Ephes 2.18 Through him we have access
declared to be the Son of God with Power Rom. 1.4 And this Resurrection of Christ must of necessity follow his Satisfaction he had taken upon him our Sin and therefore must undergo the Wages due unto it viz. Death in the very instant of his Death he had compleated his Sacrifice and Satisfaction when he said upon the Cross It is finished John 19.30 Yet as it was necessary for him to lie under Death so long as might convince the Reality of it so it was impossible for him to lie longer the Debt was paid and he could be no longer detained Prisoner Acts 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible he should be holden of it And this Resurrection of Christ as it was by the Power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 He liveth by the Power of God Ephes 1.19 The working of his mighty Power or by the Eternal Spirit Rom. 8.11 The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead so it was the effect of his Justice the Price of Man's Redemption being paid he was now by the Eternal Covenant of God to prolong his days And hence he is said to be justified in the Spirit 1 Tim. 3.16 Even that Spirit that raised him up from the dead did at the same time proclaim the compleatness of his Satisfaction and justifie the fulfilling of his Undertaking If Christ had not risen there had of necessity followed these two Consequences either of which had left us in as bad case as he found us 1. It had been then impossible that his Death had been a sufficient Sacrifice If he had been detained under Death the Guilt had still continued undischarged And hence 1 Cor. 15.17 If Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins As if he should have said If there be no Satisfaction made for your Sins ye are still in them If Christ be detained under Death it is evident the Satisfaction is not made for the Curse of the Law continues undischarged and consequently the Guilt continues unacquitted and hence Christ's Sacrifice was justified by his Resurrection so are we Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification And this Resurrection of Christ was his Victory over Guilt and Death and Hell. 1 Cor. 15.57 The Victory given through Christ Colos 2.15 Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he then made a shew of them openly 2. It had been impossible that the Members of Christ could have the benefit either of the first or second Resurrection for by reason of that Union with their Head they partake of all those conditions whereof their head participates Crucified with him Gal. 2.20 Dead to sin and buried with him Rom. 6.3 6 8. Live with him Galat. 2.20 Rise together with him to newness of Life Rom. 6.4 Rom. 8.11 12. Planted unto the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 Ascended with him Ephes 2.6 and shall rise again to eternal Happiness by virtue only of his Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thes 4.14 9. That Christ after his Resurrection did Ascend up into Heaven where his humane Nature is cloathed with Power and Glory and Immortality The Death of our Saviour was attested by his three days keeping his Grave and the Resurrection was attested by all the Evidences that incredulity it self could require for satisfaction because the matter of the greatest difficulty to believe and which being admitted made the whole truth concerning him easily credible Therefore for the clearing of this truth as he spent forty days to conquer the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness so he spent forty days after his Resurrection to subdue the infidelity of mankind to the belief thereof And during that time used all the sensible Convictions that might be for the confirming of their belief that the very Body of Christ re-assumed his Soul and Life 1. The Body removed out of the Sepulchre Luke 24.5 Why seek ye the Living among the Dead 2. He appeared unto them and because those appearances were accompanied with some Circumstances that might breed jealousie that it was a finer substance than a Body as his sudden vanishing out of their sight Luke 24 3â— His sudden presenting of himself among them when the Doors were shut Luke 24.36 John 20.19 Yet to convince that suspicion he exhibits his hands and his side eats with them converses with them about forty days Acts. 1.3 The Body of Christ being by the power of God made of an Angelical though not spiritual substance is taken up into Heaven Mark 16.19 Luke 24.57 Acts 16.9 where he sits at the right hand of Glory Acts 3.21 Heb. 10.12 Heb. 12.2 This was that which was figured by the High Priest's entring into the Holy of Holies Heb. 9.24 and extended to the very whole humane Nature of Christ the same that ascended is he that descended Ephes 4.9 This was the saying of Christ himself John 20.17 I am not yet ascended to my Father but go tell my Brethren I ascend unto my Father and your Father c. And this is that that our Saviour so often inculcates That the Son of Man shall come in his Glory c. Matth. 25.31 Matth. 26.64 To insinuate that that very humane Nature by which he is denominated Man should continue in immortality and appear the last day for the judgment of the World. And as by the power of God Man in his purity had been perpetuated to immortality and so he shall be in his Resurrection so by the power of God the Life of Christ's humane Nature shall be perpetuated to everlasting 2 Cor. 13.4 He liveth by the power of God. And this Body of Christ as it is filled with immortality so it is filled with Glory we shall be made like unto his glorious Body Phil. 3.21 10. That Christ having perfected the work of Man's redemption and ascended into Heaven exerciseth a threefold Office for the benefit of his Church and People 1. Of Power of Dominion This was that Inauguration of Christ in his Kingdom Psal 110.1 Sit thou at my right Hand Isaiah 53.10 Therefore will I divide him a Portion with the great c. because he hath poured out his Soul unto Death And therefore after his Resurrection he tells his Disciples Matth. 28.18 That all power is given him both in Heaven and in Earth and is that which is so often called his sitting at the right hand of his Father Ephs 1.20 and his making both Lord and Christ Acts 2.36 And this Kingdom Dominion and Power of Christ shall continue until the end when he shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.24 27. 2. The Communication of his Spirit The Power of the Spirit of God is in all his Creatures and especially in Men and all Creatures in their actings are but instrumental to the Spirit of God But by Christ the Power of that Spirit is communicated in a more
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
may be taken these ways 1. The immediate Communication of the Holy Spirit wherewith Christ himself was indued for as in respect of the Union of the Divine Nature there was an Essential Union between the Son and the Spirit so by that Union of both Natures in one Person there was a Communion of the same Spirit unto Christ The Spirit descended upon him like a Dove Matth. 3.16 God gave him not the Spirit by measure John 3.34 Now as Aaron's Ointment that was poured first upon his Head descended upon the Hem of his Garment so by virtue of our Union with him that Spirit that was without measure poured upon our Head was in some measure diffused upon all that are united to him and as the same Soul that actuates the Heart and the Head in a more plentiful and eminent manner doth inactuate the most inconsiderable part of the same Body so the same Spirit that is in Christ is in every one that is united unto him though in a different degree of operation Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 2 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit And by this Spirit of Christ which he giveth and communicateth unto those that are united unto him they are said to be sealed by the Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 2 Cor. 1.22 viz. It is by this Spirit of Christ that we have access unto God Ephes 2.18 We have access by one Spirit unto the Father and it is this Spirit that forms our Desires in us and by this means our Desires are not only discovered unto God that knows the mind of his own Spirit but they are also conformable unto the Will of God Rom. 8.27 He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit because be maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God. And as the Father did hear the Son always because his Desires were conformable to the Will of his Father John 11.42 I know that thou hearest me always so John 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he shall give it you for it is a Petition framed by that Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ and of God and what his own Spirit desires it is his own Will to grant And for this cause it is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 God is pleased to accept the Prayers and Services of the Members of Christ in him even as the obedience of his own Sons because they are moved and actuated by the very same Spirit which is the Spirit of his Son. And as the intrinsecal form of things is that which instrumentally conforms the qualities and proportions of the thing which it informs unto that intrinsecal form and suits it with Qualities and Conditions suitable to its Operations so this Spirit of Christ doth by degrees conform the Soul the Affections the whole Man unto the Image of Christ changing it into the same Image 2 Cor. 3.18 And this Spirit of Christ doth lead them into all Truth John 16.13 And from hence it is that he that is the true Member of Christ cannot continue in a constant course of sin 1 John 3.9 For his seed remaineth in him viz. That Spirit of Christ by which he is actuated and by which he is born of God John 3.6 That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That abideth in him and will be degrees like a living Spring work out that mudd that our own flesh and corruption cast into us 2. Which is a fruit of the former The mind of Christ For this Spirit of God works a Conformity in the Heart and Life to Christ whose Spirit it is This Spirit of Christ makes an impression of the Image of Christ upon the Soul and Life The like Effect with this we find in all things In matters Natural the vicinity of two things together works a Conformity of the weaker to the stronger either Element or Form In matters Moral Conversation between two breed a Conformity in Manners even different from their otherwise natural Constitution much more where the Spirit of Christ lays hold on the Soul and unites a Man unto Christ there is not only new Company but a new Form and consequently of necessity a new frame and temper of Heart and Life conformable to such Company and to such a Form. And in order to this Conformity unto Christ the Old Conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts Ephes 4.22 must be put off the Affections and Lusts must be crucified Galat. 5.25 the Body will be dead because of sin Rom. 8.10 Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts will be denied Tit. 2.12 For these make a deformity from Christ such a Spirit as the Spirit of Christ cannot long endure to inform or inhabit such a Soul but if it come into him it will change him And in stead thereof the Man shall be born again by the Spirit John 3.5 the Spirit will be Life Rom. 8.10 Christ will be new formed in them Galat. 4.19 the walking will be in the Spirit Galat. 5.25 the New Man will be put on even the Image of Christ Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4.24 Christ will be put on Galat. 3.27 Rom. 13.14 the Life will be the Life of Christ Galat. 2.20 the Heart will be the Habitation of Christ Ephes 3.17 of God Ephes 2.22 of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 the mind the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 the temper of the Soul the same with his humble as he was humble Phil. 2.5 holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1.16 long-suffering and indulgent as he was John 13.15 Behold have I not given you an example Patient under the Will of God c. And by Conformity unto Christ Man is put into a right state and in that order towards God himself and others as he was in his creation and thereby in some measure restored to that Happiness which he had by reason of that order The Happiness and Peace of every thing consisting in the due observance of that station and Rule which God hath given it And this Conformity unto Christ is our Sanctification which is nothing else but a restoring of Man in some measure to that Conformity unto the Will of God in which he was created Man by sin lost that impression of God's Image God was pleased to give us his Son who is the express Image of his Father and by this Spirit of his to re-imprint that Image again upon as many as behold him and come unto him by Faith 1. Thes 4.3 This is the will of God even your Sanctification so that the Sanctification or Obedience which is wrought in us and required of us is the Conformity of the Will of Man to the Will of God. The Obedience performed unto God by the Faithful ariseth from a double Principle 1. This whereof we now speak an intrinsecal Change of the Nature Conforming the Heart
lost in those Pursuits that have left no footsteps of Content in my Soulâ— but instead thereof a bruised and wounded Conscience a displeased and an angry God an infinite Happiness offered and sold for a few unprofitable and perished Pleasures and Lusts when I shall find an infinite Guilt contracted a Soul clogged with a custom of sin a Body now ready to drop into dissolution a great work to do to make the Peace of my Soul a God by whose only strength I can do it hiding himself and his influence from me and Death by his hasty and churlish Officers still ready to seize me to carry me off without regard to the importunity and concernment of a little longer time such thoughts as these will work upon a Man to keep a hand over himself over his Flesh over his Lust while it is called to day not to harden the Heart to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure to get Oyl in the Lamp to break off the course of sin to cleanse our hearts to improve this little portion of time to our best advantage for Death will come and after that Judgement Lord so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom CHAP. XVI Meditation of the Vnreasonableness of the Dominion of Lust 6. A SAD and deep Consideration of the Vnreasonableness and Vnbecomingness of the Power and Dominion of any Lust upon a Man. And this though it be a moral Consideration is of good use for the mortifying of our Lusts S. Paul divides our Lusts into the Lusts of the Flesh and the Lusts of the Mind Ephes 2.3 S. John tells us that all that is in the World is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life 1 John 2.16 Out of both these we may divide the Enemies of our Soul within us into these Divisions 1. Lust which is nothing else but the immoderate and inordinate actings of the Appetite either beyond that measure it ought to be or upon those Objects it ought not to be And this either 1. In the Rational Appetite those are the Lusts of the Mind 2. In the Sensitive Appetite those again 1. In the Lusts of the Flesh 2. The Lust of the Eyes 2. Pride in an overvaluing of our selves in the fruition of those things we have thus pursued Now we shall a little consider how far forth any of these do hold a disproportion even with right Reason 1. The Lusts of the Mind The great Desire of the Mind is that of Knowledge an Appetite that God hath put into the Soul of Man and so a thing beautiful and good But this very Desire of Knowledge becomes a Lust of the Mind when either it is misplaced in respect of his Object thus Adam's desire of Knowledge of Good and Evil became a Lust or when acted beyond its proportion The chiefest Object of our Love ought to be the chiefest object of our Knowledge and consequently of our desire of Knowledge and that is only God and he is to be known and consequently we ought to desire to know him as he hath revealed himself in his Word in his Works and by his Spirit When either therefore we desire to know even in things pertaining to God beyond what we ought to know as the Counsels of his Will looking into the Ark or when we desire to know things of an inferiour nature with an over-intensive desire which is only due to God our want of Sobriety in the former and our want of Moderation in the latter turns our desire of Knowledge into a Lust of the Mind or when acted without his due End Good and the fruition of it is the great and final object of the Soul and as the Acts of the Understanding are preparatory to the Will so Knowledge and the desire of it is or should be preparatory to the fruition of some Good farther and beyond the bare speculative Knowledge of it If it were possible for a Man truly to know God without the Love of him and the sense of his Love to the Soul a desire of such a Knowledge though I dare not term it a Lust of the Mind yet it is such a desire as is not rightly qualified To desire to know a thing fit to be known meerly because I would know it It is but a Lust of the Mind and such a Knowledge as only puffeth up Now any Man may rationally conclude that such desires of the Mind as these are even condemned of Reason it self as irregular and useless It is true that whatsoever is an object of our Knowledge may be an object of our desire of Knowledge if not forbidden by him that gave the Power if acted with Moderation and Sobriety if subordinated to that desire which I have or should have to that great object of my Knowledge But for a Man to spend his choicest hours and thoughts and inquiries upon unnecessary perishing useless objects Reason it self will conclude as the Preacher would have the covetous Man Eccles 4.8 For what do I labour and bereave my soul of good And as thus in the Intellectual Faculty there are Lusts of the Mind so are there in the Rational Appetite the Will and Affections The Passions in the Soul are natural to it and therefore naturally good therefore want of natural Affection is a thing condemned in the old World Rom. 1.31 But when these Affections are acted beyond their natural end and use they become corrupt and putrified and so Lusts of the Mind And this is seen in either Faculty Irascible and Concupiscible and by how much the more spiritual they are by so much the more devilish and hurtful and yet condemned by sound Reason The Passion of Anger was planted in the Mind and is good when acted upon a right object and in a due measure Ephes 4.26 But this Passion being over-acted it becomes putrified and a Lust of the Mind it then turns into Malice to Envy The Spirit that is in us lusteth after Envy Jam. 4.5 into desire of Revenge and thus Lust conceiveth upon this Passion of the Soul and bringeth forth Sin. Now all these are evidently against right Reason Because even sound Reason teacheth us to love all that is good Every Being hath in it self a goodness and doth naturally challenge our Love and therefore to desire the destruction of any Being is against the Law and Rule of Reason or to desire a less or more low degree of Being to it than it hath It is true there may be some irregularity in it which I may and must hate But when my hatred is in the concrete and takes in the Being of any thing which is good as well as that which I conceive an irregularity within the compass of it as is in all Malice and Revenge then is my Passion mis-acted corrupted and proves a lust of the Mind Suppose a Man hath done me an extream injury and intends to continue it right Reason
any thing that he doth or suffers be answerable to his own well-being which is the termination of that Love and accordingly likes or dislikes it or wills it to be or not to be done This Precept is resolved into its Negative Whatsoever ye would not that men should do to you that do not to them And for the use of both we are to take them both with these Limitations 1. It is understood in an equality or parity of Relation and not otherwise For an instance the Father may expect that from a Son viz. Reverence and Observance which will not be fit for the Father to give to the Son. The Duties are diversified according to the diversity of the Relations The resolution of the Precept in this case is therefore this Whatsoever I would that my Father should expect from me that I would that my Son should do to me è converso Variations of Circumstances and Relations diversifie the Case and therefore the resolution of this Precept in case of different Relations must be as well with the change of the Relations as of the Persons and the Question to be asked the Conscience in such a case is Were I in my Neighbour's Condition and my Neighbour in mine what I would in such a Case expect from my Neighbour that I ought to do to him Ex Autographo cum eod collat FINIS A Brief Abstract OF THE Christian Religion A BRIEF ABSTRACT OF THE Christian Religion 1. THAT there is One and but one most Glorious God Eternal Incomprehensible perfectly Happy Infinite in Wisdom Power and Goodness filling all places but comprehended in no place full of Justice Mercy Truth and Perfection 2. That this God though but One in Essence is yet Three in number of his Subsistence Father Son and Holy Spirit 3. That this God in the beginning of time created the World commonly called the Heaven and Earth which he still governs by his Power Wisdom and Providence And this he did 1. For the Manifestation and Glory of his Wisdom Power and Goodness 2. For the Communication of his Beneficence Goodness and Bounty to the things which he thus made according to their several Natures and Capacities 4. That having finished this inferior World called the Earth and furnished it with all things necessary and convenient for the use and convenience of the nobler Creature which he intended he created the first Man Adam and the first Woman Eve the common Parents of all Mankind from whom all the Men and Women in the World are derived by natural Propagation 5. To these first Parents of Mankind Almighty God gave some Endowments or constituent Parts that are common to all Mankind as well as to them namely 1. Terrestrial or Earthly Bodies for the first Man was made out of the Earth and the Bodies of all other Men though they are derived to them by ordinary Generation yet their Bodies are terrestrial or elementary Bodies 2 Spiritual and Immortal Souls endued not only with the Power of Vegetation as Herbs and Trees nor only with the Power of Sense and Perception and Appetite as the bruit Beasts but also with the Power of Understanding and Liberty of Will whereby he obtains a kind above all other visible Creatures besides And this Soul thus endued with the Power of Understanding and Will doth not die with the Body but it is immortal and never dies And this is called a Reasonable Soul whereby we understand and think and consider and remember and chuse one thing and refuse another whereby we have a Capacity to know Almighty God his Works his Will and to obey and observe it and to perform all the Actions that belong to a Reasonable Creature 3. A Power of Propagation of their Kind by the mutual conjunction of Sexes by vertue of that Divine Benediction given to Man as well as to sensible Creatures Be fruitful multiply and replenish the Earth By vertue of which Benediction all the Families of Mankind that were or are or shall be upon the face of the Earth are in the course of ordinary Generation derived from the first Parents of Mankind 4. A Power and Right of Dominion over the inferiour Creatures which he doth exercise partly by the ordination and appointment of their Creation and partly by the advantage of his understanding Faculty and though this Dominion be in some sort weakened and decayed by the Fall of our first Parents yet it still in a great measure continues to the Children of Men. 6. But some Priviledges our first Parents had in their state of Innocence which by their Fall hath been much impaired and lost and not derived to their Posterity 1. A state of perfect Innocence free from all Sin and sinful contagion 2. A state of Happiness and Blessedness as large as Humane Nature could be capable of 3. A state of great Integrity and Perfection as far forth as it was possible for Humane Nature to enjoy as Light and great Knowledge in his Understanding Integrity in his Will right Order in his Soul Righteousness and Holiness 4. A state of Immortality of Body and Soul in their perfect conjunction so long as he kept his Innocence 7. The Ends for which Almighty God created Man thus were first those common Ends which moved him to create the World above mentioned namely his own Glory and the Communication of his Goodness and Beneficence but secondly these seem to be the special Ends of Man's Creation 1. That he might have a Creature in this lower World that might more conveniently actively and effectually give glory unto God and to that end he endued him with Nobler Faculties that might perform this Office his Understanding whereby he might know his Maker and his Will and his Works His Will whereby he might obey his Will his Affections whereby he might love and fear and admire him His Faculty of Speech whereby he might glorifie and praise him this is another kind of Glory than the other inferiours do or can bring to their Maker And to the end he might thus glorifie his Maker he placed him in the view and sight of the goodly frame of Heaven and Earth and gave him his Law wherein he should obey and serve his Creator 2. That he might be partaker of as much Happiness and Blessedness as the Humane Nature could be capable of while it stood in conjunction with his Body and that he should by a kind of Translation into Heaven enjoy more Pure Perfect and Everlasting state of Blessedness and Glory 8. When God had thus created Man he gave him a Law of Righteousness and Holiness and revealed it to him and for a Probation or Trial of his Obedience forbad him the eating of the Fruit of one Tree in Paradise under pain of Death 9. Our first Parents rebelled against that just and easie Law by eating the forbidden Fruit. And although they did not presently die corporally yet they by this Disobedience fell into these Inconveniences 1. They
were presently under the Sentence of Everlasting Death though delivered from it by the Messiah that promised seed 2. They lost the estate of Immortality of their Bodies though they lost not the state of Immortality of their Souls which were essensentially Immortal 3. They lost their Innocence their Happy Estate in Paradise the clear and supernatural Light of their Understanding the Rectitude of their Wills the right Order of their Affections and their Souls lost much of its Perfection though not its essential Spirituality and Immortality 4. All that were after derived from them by ordinary Generation though they had immortal Souls yet their Faculties were imbased and corrupted and greatly disordered and without the extraordinary Grace of God preventing and assisting them prone to all kind of evil and sin and thereby obnoxious to the wrath of God and to everlasting Death And this is the Condition of all the Posterity of Adam by Nature except Jesus Christ 10. God Almighty in his eternal wisdom and foreknowledge of the fall of Man in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness purposed to send forth his Son to take the Humane Nature and to become a King a Priest and a Prophet and also a Sacrifice to expiate the Sins of Mankind and to make them again partakers of the great and essential part of that Happiness which the first Man lost by his Fall and so to recover unto himself a Creature that might actually glorifie and serve him 11. And to make this Purpose effectual to our first Parents and to those that succeeded them before the coming of Christ the purposed Redeemer Almighty God was pleased to use two Expedients 1. He gave out the Promise of the Messiah or the Seed of the Woman the seed in whom all Nations should be blessed and the Belief of this though darkly revealed became an Instrument or Means to render the promised Messiah effectual to them to partake of the Benefits of his Redemption when it was joyned with the Obedience to the revealed Will of God in Sincerity 2. He gave out Precepts directing Men to their Duty and to the sincere Endeavour of Obedience to those Precepts he annexed the Benefit of Remission of Sins and Acceptance of their Persons and Duties through the Messiah or Christ that was to come 12. In the fulness or appointment of time namely about four thousand years after the Creation of Mankind the Son of God by a miraculous Conception of the Virgin Mary without the conjunction of Man assumed the Humane Nature became Man lived about three and thirty years discovered the Mind and Will of God touching Mankind confirmed his Doctrine with unquestionable Miracles and Evidences from Heaven and lived a most Holy and Spotless Life and then was without cause crucified by the Jews was buried the third day he rose from the dead lived again according as he promised and conversed with his Disciples forty days then ascended into the glorious Heavens where he is in a state of Glory and Power 13. And after his Ascension he sent upon his Apostles as he promised the Power of the Holy Spirit whereby they did many Miracles in witness of the truth of the Doctrine and History of Christ 14 The Reasons and Ends why the Son of God thus took our Nature became Man and died for us were these 1. That the Eternal Counsel and Purpose of God for the Recovering and Redemption of Mankind out of their lost Condition and all those Predictions and Prophecies touching the same might be fulfilled and thereby the great God to have the Glory of his Wisdom Mercy Power and Truth 2. That there might be a common Remedy for the Recovery of Mankind to their duty and subjection to Almighty God that they might actively glorifie their Creator according to the End of their Creation 3. That there might be a common Remedy afforded to Mankind to obtain in substance that Happiness which they lost in their first Parents and by their own renewed Transgressions and a Means provided for the pardon of their Sins and saving of their immortal Souls and yet without derogation of the Divine Justice and the Honour of his Government 15. In order to these great Ends the Son of God was thus sent from Heaven and Commissionated as it were by the Father principally to do these Great Businesses in this World first to acquaint the World with the whole Will of God concerning Mankind 2. To lay down a full and sufficient Sacrifice for the Sins of the World by his own Death and Passion 3. To give the World all possible Assurance both of the Truth of his Doctrine and the Sufficiency of his Satisfaction by his wonderful Miracles by his Resurrection and Ascension and by the Diffusion of the Gifts of the Spirit upon his Apostles and Believers after his Ascension 16. Touching the first of these namely the manifestation of the Divine Will touching Mankind this contains the Doctrine of the Gospel the Message sent from Heaven by the Son of God touching all things to be believed and to be done by the Children of Men in order to their Redemption and attaining of everlasting Happiness And this was necessary because the World was full of Darkness and Ignorance And many things that were now necessary for Men to know were but darkly revealed unto the former Ages of the World. The Son of God therefore came to bring Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel 17. The Doctrines of the Gospel which Christ brought with him into the World were principally these 1. That all Men have Immortal Souls which must live to all Eternity notwithstanding the death of their Bodies 2. That there should come a Dissolution of this present World and at that time there shall be a Resurrection of all that had been dead and a change of all that should be then living into an Immortal Estate 3. That there should at that day be a Final Judgment where all Men should be doomed some to everlasting Life and Happiness some to everlasting Misery 4. That in the strict Rule of Divine Justice the Wages of every Sin is everlasting Death and Misery which is fully described in the Gospel 5. That all Mankind is obnoxious to everlasting Death and Misery because all Mankind have sinned and are born in Sin. So that without the help of Mercy from God all Mankind are in a lost and desperate Condition 6. That yet for all this Almighty God is willing that his Creature should be reconciled to him is desirous to pardon his Sins to be at peace with him and everlastingly to save him and to restore unto him that everlasting Happiness that he had lost by his own sin and the sin of our first Parents 7. But yet that all this should be done in such a way as might be consistent with the Honour of his Justice and of his Government as well as of his Mercy and of his Bounty and therefore that he will have a Sacrifice and a Price
Wisdom is within my call and within my vieâ— and I can beg his counsel and I am sure to have it and his is the best counsel Are my losses great and of those things wherein I took most delight yet they cannot countervail the enjoyment of the Presence of the All-sufficient God. Is my body full of tortures or diseases and death looks in upon me between the Curtains and my Soul sitting upon my lips and like the light of a dying Candle taking her flight from my body yet the Presence of the All-sufficient God is able to make this valley of the shadow of death lightsom and those pains easie and bear up my Soul against the horrour and amazement of death for he stands by me with strength to support me with Victory and Immortality to receive that Soul the only seat where my fear can dwell into a more near and immediate sense of his Presence than in my body it could feel Only remember that though the Presence of his Essence cannot be excluded from any place or person Jer. 23.34 yet there are occasions that may separate from the sense of his presence or make his presence terrible unto thee Isa 59.2 Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear And if such an unhappy time befal thee that he hide from thy Soul his comfortable presence let it be thy care to return unto him by humbling of thy heart sincerely before him for thy relapse He never departs from any till man first depart from him and he never hides himself long from any that in sincerity return unto him The very moving of thy heart to seek him is the work of his Power and Mercy upon thee and is an undeniable evidence that he hath not utterly forsaken thee unless he first did seek and find thee and touch that heart of thine with his own finger thy heart would rather die in her sin than return unto God and therefore be sure thy returning to him shall not be without a finding of him Only make this use of thy Experience of such a case bless the Mercy of God that hath not rejected thee though thou hast forsaken him bless the Mediation of thy Redeemer that when thou little thinkest of it intercedes for thy pardon and sends out his Spirit to reduce his wayward sinful wandring Creature bless the Bounty and Patience of God that is so ready to accept again into favour his relapsed but humbled Creature and remember that it is an evil thing and a bitter to depart from him fall upon thy knees with tears of sorrow for thy ingratitude and tears of joy for thy re entertainment into the presence of him that yet is pleased to own thee as a Father take up indignation against thy sin that hath deprived thee of so great a Good as the comfortable Presence of God and take up jealous thoughts over thy self and all thy ways and consider well of all thy enterprises before thou undertake them whether there be any thing in them that may offend thy reconciled Father and because thy Judgment is weak and cannot so clearly discern thy way and thy strength is weak in opposing of temptation suspect thy own judgment and strength and beg his Wisdom to teach thee and his Strength to assist thee and lean not to thy own Understanding Again The consideration of the Presence of God is of singular use in all thy Duties of Piety and Charity In the doing of them it will cleanse thy heart from Hypocrisie because thou art before the God that searcheth the heart and accordingly accepteth of the action It will keep thee from unseemliness and want of Reverence because the Lord of Heaven and Earth is present and an Eye-witness to all the deportment of thy Body and Soul. It will keep thee from sluggishness formality and deadness of heart because he stands by thee that sees not as man sees It will keep thee from Pride and vain Glory it will make thy heart sincere reverent watchful earnest and humble in all thou dost because as he that stands by thee requires all this in all thy Duties so these affections or habits of the Soul become the Creature that knows he is in the Presence of the Glorious and Infinite God that searcheth the hearts and sees the actions And as in thy Duties it will fit thee for them so after thy Duties it will comfort thee in them Hath thy heart been truly humbled in his presence for any sin for which thou hast begged pardon and mingled the Blood and Intercession of thy Saviour with thy Prayers Hast thou been upon thy knees before him for any thing necessary for thy Soul Body or Relations Hast thou endeavoured by a serious Meditation to consider of Divine Truths Hast thou examined the state of thy Soul and of thy Life and upon the view thereof taken up resolutions of amendment of what is amiss and persevering and increasing in what is agreeable to his Will Hast thou sought out to relieve those that are in want to recompense those that thou hast injured to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ Hast thou been doing any thing that is the duty of thy general Calling as thou art a Christian or that particular Calling or Employment into which God's Providence hath cast thee And can thy heart bear thee witness that in all this thou hast endeavoured with all sincerity as in the Presence of God to walk and act in obedience to him and with a clear and upright heart and conscience Be sure thy heart cannot more clearly evidence it self to thy self than it doth to God and God was all this while present with thee beholding of thee there is not one grain of the sincerity and integrity of any of these thy actions not one tear not one thought of thy heart lost but most exactly observed and weighed by him that weigheth the Spirits and they shall not return unto thee empty Acts 10.4 Thy Prayers and thy Alms are come up for a memorial before God. 3. The Truth and Vnchangeableness of God he is unchangeable in his Nature Psal 102.27 They shall be changed but thou art the same Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed James 1.17 The Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning And from this Immutability of his Essence flows the Truth of his Word in his Covenant in his Promises in his Threatnings in his Works Psal 111 7. The works of his hands are Verity and Judgment and all his Commandments are sure And the very variety of his Dispensations of Mercy and Justice to the Children of men ariseth from the very unchangeable Nature of God even from the very first Creation until now Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well shalâ— thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well sin lyes at the door which is the very same
several men or one man at several times and yet they may be of different natures one may be a Chastisement another may be a Trial and another may be a Favour it is according as the thing sent hath its Commission from him that sends it If it be a Chastisement it is not without a sting If it be a Tryal it is not without an issue If it be a Favour it is not without a great measure of comforts mingled with it 1. A Chastisement for a sin past carries with it the poison and malignity of the sin which causes it as the fruit carries the nature of that seed from whence it grows Jer. 21.14 Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter Jer. 4.18 the Affliction tasted of the sin Psal 40.12 Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me Psal 38.3 There is no rest in my bones because of my sin And this like the Trumpet in the Mount waxeth louder and louder and Prayers for Deliverance prove fruitless though they come from a Joshua Josh 7.10 till the accursed thing be sought out for till then the message that the Affliction brings is not received and it will not give over vexing the man till it hath done his Errand When a man begins to examine his ways and finds out the root of his trouble and humbles himself before God for his sin then and not till then can he expect a Deliverance When David Psal 38. had run over the Catalogue of his Sufferings his Prayer for Deliverance was never seasonable v. 22. till he had undertaken Confession and Repentance of his Sin v. 18. If upon the gentle Admonitions of the Almighty in the Conscience a man listens not he hath a Messenger sent to him that will be heard Job 33.16 Then he openeth the ear of man and it may be by a disease in his Body or some other affliction and he stands by to see how this message is entertained v. 27 28. And if any say I have sinned and perverted what was right and it profited me not then he will deliver his Soul c. A Chastisement for a sin hath at the same time an Act of Justice as it looks backward to the sin and an Act of Mercy as it looks forward to an Amendment and the latter is the principal End of God in it And therefore with the Repentance either the Chastisement is ........ if immanent or if transient and past is sweetned with a sense of God's Reconciliation 2. If it be a Tryal that carries with it his message for if upon an impartial inquiry a man cannot find any eminent sin unrepented of yet it pleaseth God to lay his hand upon him yet it brings these Lessons with it 1. To acknowledge the Justice of God for all this It is somewhat strange that Job could so much justifie himself against his Sufferings and yet was made to possess the sins of his youth Those little sins which were passed twenty or thirty years since and had all the extenuations of the infirmity of Nature have malignity enough in them to deserve those Sufferings that thou now art under and it was the Patience of God towards thee that they were thus long before they bore their fruit when thou art in a better condition to make use of the punishment than thou wert shortly after their commission And it may be thy Repentance even for those long past transgressions was not particular or deep enough and it is no loss of time or labour to thee to mourn again over thy stale transgressions but howsoever let it be thy care to search thy self it will make thee better acquainted with thy self If thou find a sin not deeply enough sorrowed for thy affliction hath deserved well at thy hands and if thou find it not yet thy affliction is well recompensed by giving thee an opportunity to discover that to thy self which contents thy Conscience more valuably than thy affliction hath done thee prejudice 2. To acknowledge the Sovereignty of God and to submit to his Will with an obedient Patience 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Psal 39.9 I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it Jer. 18.6 Behold as the clay is in the hand of the potter so are ye in my hands Though thou canst not see a cause for thy afflictions that might signally deserve it nor canst see an end in it yet thou canst not chuse but find a use of it to teach thee with Wisdom to acknowledge and with Patience to submit unto the most justly unlimited Power and Authority of the Almighty God over the Work of his own hands and to put thy mouth in the dust and to wait for him and upon him Jam. 3.28 29. till he give an expected End Jer. 29.11 3. To depend and rest upon his Mercy and Goodness for deliverance from or strength and comfort in thy Affliction As the Creature is essentially dependent upon God so it is its Duty and Perfection and he useth the absence of external confidences and comforts upon which we are most apt to rest to call man to his duty to fix his heart upon him Psal 112.7 External Confluences many times rob God of that Love and that Dependence we owe to him and if the loss or want of them send thy Love and Confidence to him to whom it belongs thou art no loser by thy loss 4. To walk more strictly and vigilantly with God. Though thou canst not upon thy Examination find a cause of thy cross that may eminently discover it self in it yet thou canst not chuse but know thou art far short of that Duty and degree of Perfection in thy heart and life which by that assistance of his Grace that thou hast thou mayest arrive unto thy affliction though it put thee not in mind of any notable sin which should humble thee it may very well put thee in mind of thy neglects and want of intention in thy duty 5. Though thy Disease needs not this Physick to cure thee yet thy Corruption needs it to prevent thee thou hast within thee a Fountain of Corruptions that were they not restrained or allayed would upon a small opportunity turn to a desperate disease in thy Soul and those Corruptions of thine live and feed upon external superfluities and supplies and the Wise God foresees it may be that in a month or two or more or less thy full Enjoyments would ripen this or that corruption into a distemper that might be dangerous if not fatal to thy Soul and he sends this Messenger to abate or allay or divert or cross or weaken this corruption to put in a little Wormwood into thy sweet Cup that thou mayest take it with more moderation and not so greedily to throw some dirt upon thy self-opinion or growing pride that may spoil the growth of it to give a check to thy desires of external Wealth or