be pleniores Deo then those that are really inform'd and actuated by the Divine Spirit and do move on steddily and constantly in the way towards Heaven as the Seed that was sown in the thorny ground grew up and lengthened out its blade faster then that which was sown in the good and fruitfull soil And as the Motions of our Sense Fancy and Passions while our Souls are in this mortal condition sunk down deeply into the Body are many times more vigorous and make stronger impressions upon us then those of the Higher powers of the Soul which are more subtile and remote from these mixt and Animal perceptions that Devotion which is there seated may seem to have more Energy and life in it then that which gently and with a more delicate kind of touch spreads it self upon the Understanding and from thence mildly derives it self through our Wills Affections But howsoever the Former may be more boisterous for a time yet This is of a more consistent spermatical and thriving nature For that proceeding indeed from nothing else but a Sensual and Fleshly apprehension of God and true Happiness is but of a flitting and fading nature and as the Sensible powers and faculties grow more languid or the Sun of Divine light shines more brightly upon us these earthly devotions like our Culinary fires will abate their heat and servour But a true Celestial warmth will never be extinguish'd because it is of an Immortal nature and being once seated vitally in the Souls of men it will regulate and order all the motions of it in a due manner as the natural Heat radicated in the Hearts of living creatures hath the dominion and Oeconomy of the whole Body under it and sends forth warm Bloud and Spirits and Vital nourishment to every part and member of it True Religion is no piece of artifice it is no boiling up of our Imaginative powers nor the glowing heats of Passion though these are too often mistaken for it when in our juglings in Religion we cast a mist before our own eyes But it is a new Nature informing the Souls of men it is a God-like frame of Spirit discovering it self most of all in Serene and Clear minds in deep Humility Meekness Self-denial Universal love of God and all true Goodness without Partiality and without Hypocrisie whereby we are taught to know God and knowing him to love him and conform our selves as much as may be to all that Perfection which shines forth in him THUS far the First part of this Discourse which was designed according to the Method propounded to give a particular account of mens Mistakes about Religion The other part was intended to discover the reason of these Mistakes But whether the Author did finish that Part it appears not by any Papers of his which yet came to my hands If he did and the Papers should be in others hands for the Author was communicative if they or any other Papers of the Authors be sent to M r William Morden Bookseller in Cambridge the like care shall be taken for the publishing of them as hath been for this Collection THE EXCELLENCY and NOBLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION 1. In its Rise and Original 2. In its Nature and Essence 3. In its Properties and Operations 4 In its Progress 5. In its Term and End Psalm 16. 3. To the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight Greg. Nazianzenus in Orat. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Orat. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieronymus ad Celantiam Ep. 14. Nescit Religio nostra personas accipere nec conditiones hominum sed animos inspicit singulorum Servum Nobilem de moribus pronunciat Sola apud Deum Libertas est non servire peccatis Summa apud Deum est Nobilitas clarum esse virtutibus THE EXCELLENCY and NOBLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION Proverbs 15. 24. The Way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath The Introduction IN this whole Book of the Proverbs we find Solomon one of the Eldest Sons of Wisdom alwaies standing up and calling her blessed his Heart was both enlarged and fill'd with the pure influences of her beams and therefore was perpetually adoring that Sun which gave him light Wisdome is justified of all her Children though the brats of darkness and children of folly see no beauty nor comeliness in her that they should desire her as they said of Christ Esay 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Mind which is not touch'd with an inward sense of Divine Wisdom cannot estimate the true Worth of it But when Wisdom once displays its own excellencies and glories in a purified Soul it is entertained there with the greatest love and delight and receives its own image reflected back to it self in sweetest returns of Love and Praise We have a clear manifestation of this sacred Sympathy in Solomon whom we may not unfitly call Sapientiae Organum an Instrument which Wisdom herself had tuned to play her divine Lessons upon his words were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every where full of Divine sweetness matched with strength and beauty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as himself phraseth it like apples of gold in pictures of Silver The mind of a Proverb is to utter Wisdom in a Mystery as the Apostle sometime speaks and to wrap up Divine Truth in a kind of Aenigmatical way though in vulgar expressions Which method of delivering Divine doctrine not to mention the Writings of the ancient Philosophers we find frequently pursued in the Holy Scripture thereby both opening and hiding at once the Truth which is offered to us A Proverb or Parable being once unfolded by reason of its affinity with the Phancy the more sweetly insinuates it self into that and is from thence with the greater advantage transmitted to the Understanding In this state we are not able to behold Truth in its own Native beauty and lustre but while we are vail'd with mortality Truth must vail it self too that it may the more freely converse with us S. Austin hath well assign'd the reason why we are so much delighted with Metaphors Allegories c. because they are so much proportioned to our Senses with which our Reason hath contracted an intimacy and familiarity And therefore God to accommodate his Truth to our weak capacities does as it were embody it in Earthly expressions according to that ancient Maxim of the Cabbalists Lumen Supernum nunquam descendit fine indumento agreeable to which is that of Dionysius Areop not seldom quoted by the School-men Impossibile est nobis aliter lucere radium Divinum nisi varietate sacrorum velaminum circumvelatum His words in the Greek are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus much by way of Preface or Introduction to these words being one of Solomon's excellent Proverbs viz. The way of life is above to the wise Without any mincing or
we may go about them and tell how in a general way to define and distinguish them Happiness is nothing else as we usually describe it to our selves but the Enjoyment of some Chief good and therefore the Deity is so boundlesly Happy because it is every way one with its own Immense perfection and every thing so much the more feelingly lives upon Happiness by how much the more it comes to partake of God and to be made like to him And therefore the Platonists well defin'd it to consist in idea Boni And as it is impossible to enjoy Happiness without a fruition of God so it is impossible to enjoy him without an assimilation and conformity of our Natures to him in a way of true goodness and Godlike perfection It is a common Maxim of Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not lawfull for any impure nature to touch pure Divinity For we cannot enjoy God by any Externall conjunction with him Divine fruition is not by a meer kind of Apposition or Contiguity of our Natures with the Divine but it is an Internall Union whereby a Divine Spirit informing our Souls derives the strength of a Divine life through them and as this is more strong and active so is Happiness it self more Energeticall within us It must be some Divine Efflux running quite through our Souls awakening and exalting all the vitall powers of them into an active Sympathy with some Absolute good that renders us compleatly blessed It is not to sit gazing upon a Deity by some thin speculations but it is an inward feeling and sensation of this Mighty Goodness displaying it self within us melting our fierce and furious natures that would fain be something in contradiction to God into an Universall complyance with it self and wrapping up our amorous Minds wholly into it self whereby God comes to be all in all to us And therefore so long as our Wills and Affections endeavour to fix upon any thing but God true Goodness we doe but indeed anxiously endeavour to wring Happiness out of something that will yeeld no more then a flinty Rock to all our pressing and forcing of it The more we endeavour to force out our Affections to stay and rest themselves upon any Finite thing the more violently will they recoil back again upon us It is onely a true sense and relish of God that can tame and master that rage of our insatiable and restless desires which is still forcing us out of our selves to seek some Perfect Good that which from a latent sense of our own Souls we feel our selves to want The Foundation of Heaven and Hell is laid in mens own Souls in an ardent and vehement appetite after Happiness which can neither attain to it nor miss finally of it and of all appearances of it without a quick and piercing sense Our Souls are not like so many lumps of dead and sensless Matter to a true living Happiness they are not like these dull clods of Earth which sent not the good or ill savour of those Plants that grow upon them Gain and Loss are very sensibly felt by greedy minds The Soul of man was made with such a large capacity as it is that so it might be better fitted to entertain a full and liberall Happiness that the Divine Love and Goodness might more freely spread it self in it and unite it to it self And accordingly when it misseth of God it must feel so much the more the fury and pangs of Misery and find a severe Nemesis arising out of its guilty conscience which like a fiery Scorpion will fasten its stings within it And thus as Heaven Love Joy Peace Serenity and all that which Happiness is buds and blossoms out of holy and God-like spirits so also Hell and Misery will perpetually spring out of impure Minds distracted with Envy Malice Ambition Self-will or any inordinate loves to any particular thing This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Plato speaks of that fatal Law that is first made in Heaven's Consistory That Purity and Holiness shall be happy and all Vice and Sin miserable Holiness of Mind will be more and more attracting God to it self as all Vice will lapse and slide more and more from him The more pure our Souls are and abstracted from all mundane things the more sincerely will they endeavour the nearest union that may be with God the more they will pant and breathe after him alone leaving the chase of any other delight There is such a noble and free-born spirit in true Goodness seated in Immortall natures as will not be satisfied meerly with Innocency nor rest it self in this mix'd Bodily state though it could converse with Bodily things without sinking to a vitious love of them but would alwaies be returning to a more intimate union with that Being from whence it came and which will be drawing it more and more to it self and therefore it seems very reasonable to believe that if Adam had continued in a state of Innocency he should have been raised by God to a greater fruition of him and his nature should have been elevated to a more transcendent condition And if there was any Covenant made with Adam in Paradise I think we cannot understand it in any other sense but this the Scripture speaks not of any other terms between God and Man And this Law of life which we have spoken of is Eternall and Immutable nor does the Dispensation of Grace by Christ Jesus at all abrogate or disannull but rather enforce it for so we find that the Law of Christ that which he gave out to all his Disciples was this Law of perfection that carries true Happiness along in the Sense of it which as the great Prince of Souls he dispenseth by his Eternall Spirit in a vitall way unto the Minds of men CHAP. VII A Fourth Deduction 4. The Fourth Deduction acquaints us with the true Notion of the Divine Justice That the proper scope and design of it is to preserve Righteousness to promote and encourage true Goodness That it does not primarily intend Punishment but onely takes it up as a mean to prevent Transgression True Justice never supplants any that it self may appear more glorious in their ruines How Divine Justice is most advanced IN the fourth place we may further collect How rightly to state the Notion of the Divine Justice the scope whereof is nothing else but to assert and establish Eternall Law and Right and to preserve the integrity thereof it is no design of Vengeance which though God takes on wicked men yet he delights not in it The Divine Justice first prescribes that which is most conformable to the Divine Nature and mainly pursues the conservation of Righteousness We would not think him a good Ruler that should give out Laws to ensnare his Subjects with an even indifferency of Mind whether his Laws be kept or Punishments suffered but such a one who would make the best security for
through them into the thing signified thereby and so embraced Shadows in stead of Substance and made account to build up Happiness and Heaven upon that Earthly Law to which properly the Land of Canaan was annex'd whereas indeed this Law should have been their School-master to have led them to Christ whose Law it prefigured which that it might doe the more effectually God had annexed to the breach of any one part of it such severe Curses that they might from thence perceive how much need they had of some further Dispensation And therefore this state of theirs is set forth by a State of bondage or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For all External precepts carry perpetually an aspect of austerity and rigour to those Minds that are not informed by the internal sweetness of them And this is it only which makes the Gospel or the New Law to be a Free Noble and Generous thing because it is seated in the Souls of men and therefore Aquinas out of Austin hath well observed another difference between the Law and Gospel Brevis differentia inter Legem Evangelium est Timor Amor. This I the rather observe because the true meaning of that Spirit of Bondage which the Apostle speaks of is frequently mistaken We might further if need were for a confirmation of this which we have spoken concerning the Typicalness of the whole Jewish Oeconomy appeal to the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians which cannot well be understood without this Notion where we have the Jewish Church as a Type of the true Evangelical Church brought in as a Child in it's Minority in servitude under Tutors and Governours shut up under the Law till the time of that Emphatical revelation of the great Mysterie of God should come till the Day should break and all the shadows of the Night flee away That I may return from this Digression to the Argument we before pursued this briefly may be added That under the Old Covenant and in the time of the Law there were amongst the Jews some that were Evangelized that were re non nomine Christiani as under the Gospel there are many that do Judaize are of as Legal and Servile Spirits as the Jews children of the Bond-woman resting in mere External observances of Religion in an outward seeming Purity in a Form of Godliness as did the Scribes and Pharisees of old From what hath hitherto been discoursed I hope the Difference between both Covenants clearly appears and that the Gospel was not brought in only to hold forth a new Platform and Model of Religion it was not brought in only to refine some Notions of Truth that might formerly seem discoloured and disfigured by a multitude of Legal rites and ceremonies it was not to cast our Opinions concerning the Way of Life and Happiness only into a New mould and shape in a Pedagogical kind of way it is not so much a System and Body of saving Divinity but the Spirit and vital Influx of it spreading it self over all the Powers of mens Souls and quickening them into a Divine life it is not so properly a Doctrine that is wrapt up in ink and paper as it is Vitalis Scientia a living impression made upon the Soul and Spirit We may in a true sense be as Legal as ever the Jews were if we converse with the Gospel as a thing only without us and be as far short of the Righteousness of God as they were if we make the Righteousness which is of Christ by Faith to serve us only as an Outward Covering and endeavour not after an Internal transformation of our Minds and Souls into it The Gospel does not so much consist in Verbis as in Virtute Neither doth Evangelical dispensation therefore please God so much more then the Legal did because as a finer contrivance of his Infinite understanding it more clearly discovers the Way of Salvation to the Minds of men but chiefly because it is a more Powerful Efflux of his Divine goodness upon them as being the true Seed of a happy Immortality continually thriving and growing on to perfection I shall adde further The Gospel does not therefore hold forth such a transcendent priviledge and advantage above what the Law did only because it acquaints us that Christ our true High priest is ascended up into the Holy of holies and there in stead of the bloud of Bulls and Goats hath sprinkled the Ark and Mercy-seat above with his own bloud but also because it conveys that bloud of sprinkling into our defiled Consciences to purge them from dead works Farr be it from me to disparage in the least the Merit of Christ's bloud his becoming obedient unto death whereby we are justified But I doubt sometimes some of our Dogmata and Notions about Justification may puff us up in far higher and goodlier conceits of our selves then God hath of us and that we profanely make the unspotted righteousness of Christ to serve only as a Covering to wrap up our foul deformities and filthy vices in and when we have done think our selvs in as good credit and repute with God as we are with our selves and that we are become Heaven's darlings as much as we are our own I doubt not but the Merit and Obedience of our Saviour gain us favour with God and potently move down the benign influences of Heaven upon us But yet I think we may sometimes be too lavish and wanton in our imaginations in fondly conceiting a greater change in the Esteem which God hath of us then becomes us too little reckon upon the Real and Vital Emanations of his favour upon us Therefore for the further clearing of what hath been already said and laying a ground upon which the next part of our Discourse viz. Concerning the Conveiance of this God-like righteousness to us by Faith is to proceed We shall here speak something more to the business of Justification and Divine Acceptance which we shall dispatch in two Particulars CHAP. V. Two Propositions for the better understanding of the Doctrine of Justification and Divine Acceptance 1. Prop. That the Divine judgment and estimation of every thing is according to the truth of the thing and God's acceptance or disacceptance of things is suitable to his judgment On what account S. James does attribute a kind of Justification to Good works 2. Prop. Gods justifying of Sinners in pardoning their Sins carries in it a necessary reference to the sanctifying of their Natures This abundantly proved from the Nature of the thing OUR first Proposition is this The Divine judgment and estimation of every thing is according to the truth of the thing and Gods acceptance or disacceptance of things is suitable and proportionable to his judgment Thus S. Peter plainly tells us Act. 10. God is no respecter of persons But every one that worketh righteousness is accepted of him And God himself posed Cain who had entertained those unworthy
Despair Fretfulness against God pale Jealousies wrathfull and embittered Thoughts of him or any struglings or contests to get from within the verge of his Power and Omnisciency which would mantle up their Souls in black and horrid Night I mean not all this while by this holy Boldness and Confidence and Presence of Mind in a Believer's converse with the Deitie that high pitch of Assurance that wafts the Souls of good men over the Stygian lake of Death and brings them to the borders of life that here puts them into an actual possession of Bliss and reestates and reestablishes them in Paradise No That more general acquaintance which we may have with God's Philanthropy and Bounty ready to relieve with the bowells of his tender compassions all those starving Souls that call upon him for surely he will never doe less for fainting and drooping Souls then he doth for the young Ravens that cry unto him that converse which we are provoked by the Gospel to maintain with God's unconfined love if we understand it aright will awaken us out of our drowsie Lethargy and make us aske of him the way to Sion with our faces thitherward This will be digging up fresh fountains for us while we goe through the valley of Baca whereby refreshing our weary Souls we shall goe on from strength to strength until we see the face of our loving and ever-to-be-loved God in Sion And so I come to the next Particular wherein we shall further unfold how this God-like righteousness we have spoken of is conveighed to us by Faith and that is this A true Gospel-faith is no lazie or languid thing but a strong ardent breathing for and thirsting after divine Grace and Righteousness it doth not only pursue an ambitious project of raising the Soul immaturely to the condition of a darling Favourite with Heaven while it is unripe for it by procuring a mere empty Pardon of sin it desires not only to stand upon clear terms with Heaven by procuring the crossing of all the Debt-books of our sins there but it rather pursues after an Internal participation of the Divine nature We often hear of a Saving Faith and that where it is is not content to wait for Salvation till the world to come it is not patient of being an Expectant in a Probationership for it untill this Earthly body resignes up all it's worldly interest that so the Soul might then come into its room No but it is here perpetually gasping after it and effecting of it in a way of serious Mortification and Self-denial it enlarges and dilates it self as much as may be according to the vast dimensions of the Divine love that it may comprehend the height and depth the length and breadth thereof and fill the Soul where it is seated with all the fullness of God it breeds a strong and unsatiable appetite where it comes after true Goodness Were I to describe it I should doe it no otherwise then in the language of the Apostle It is that whereby we live in Christ and whereby he lives in us or in the dialect of our Saviour himself Something so powerfully sucking in the precious influences of the Divine Spirit that the Soul where it is is continually flowing with living waters issuing out of it self A truely-believing Soul by an ingenuous affiance in God and an eager thirst after him is alwaies sucking from the full breasts of the Divine love thence it will not part for there and there only is its life and nourishment it starves and faints away with grief and hunger whensoever it is pull'd away from thence it is perpetually hanging upon the arms of Immortal Goodness for there it finds its great strength lies and as much as may be armes it self with the mighty Power of God by which it goes forth like a Gyant refreshed with wine to run that race of Grace Holiness that leads to the true Elysium of Glory and that heavenly Canaan which is above And whensoever it finds it self enfeebled in its difficult Conflict with those fierce and furious Corruptions those tall sons of Anak which arising from our terrene and sensual affections doe here encounter it in the Wilderness of this world then turning it self to God and putting it self under the conduct of the Angel of his presence it finds it self presently out of weakness to become strong enabled from above to put to flight those mighty armies of the aliens True Faith if you would know its rise and pedegree it is begotten of the Divine bounty and fulness manifesting it self to the Spirits of men and it is conceived and brought forth by a deep and humble sense of Self-indigency and Poverty Faith arises out of Self-examination seating and placing it self in view of the Divine plenitude and Allsufficiency and thus that I may borrow those words of S. Paul we received the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in him The more this Sensual Brutish and Self-Central life thrives and prospers the more divine Faith languisheth and the more that decays and all Self-feeling Self-love and Self-sufficiency pine away the more is true Faith fed and nourished it grows more vigorous and as Carnal life wasts and consumes so the more does Faith suck in a true divine and spiritual life from the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath life in himself and freely bestowes it to all those that heartily seek for it When the Divinity united it self to Humane nature in the person of our Saviour he then gave mankind a pledge and earnest of what he would further doe therein in assuring of it into as near a conjunction as might be with Himself and in dispensing and communicating himself to Man in a way as far correspondent and agreeable as might be to that first Copy And therefore we are told of Christ being formed in us and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us of our being made conformable to him of having fellowship with him of being as he was in this world of living in him and his living in us of dying and rising again and ascending with him into Heaven and the like because indeed the same Spirit that dwelt in him derives it self in its mighty Virtue and Energy through all believing Souls shaping them more and more into a just resemblance and conformitie to him as the first Copy Pattern Whence it is that we have so many waies of unfolding the Union between Christ and all Believers set forth in the Gospel And all this is done for us by degrees through the efficacy of the Eternal spirit when by a true Faith we deny our selves and our own Wills submit our seves in a deep sense of our own folly and weakness to his Wisdome and Power comply with his Will and by a holy affiance in him subordinate our selves to his pleasure for these are the Vital acts of a Gospel-Faith And according to this which hath been said I
suppose we may fairly gloss upon S. Paul's Discourses which so much prefer Faith above Works We must not think in a Gyant-like pride to scale the walls of Heaven by our own Works and by force thereof to take the strong Fort of Blessedness and wrest the Crown of Glory out of God's hands whether he will or no. We must not think to commence a suit in Heaven for Happiness upon such a poor and weak plea as our own External compliance with the Old Law is We must not think to deal with God in the Method of Commutative Justice and to challenge Eternal life as the just Reward of our great Merits and the hire due to us for our labour and toil we have took in God's Vineyard No God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble it must be an humble and Self-denying address of a Soul dissolved into a deep and piercing sense of its own Nothingness and unprofitableness that can be capable of the Divine bounty he fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away They are the hungry and thirsty Souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of Divine grace as the parched ground in the desert doth for the dew of Heaven ready to drink them in by a constant dependance upon God Souls that by a living watchfull and diligent Faith spreading forth themselves in all obsequious reverence and love of him wait upon him as the Eyes of an handmaid wait on the hand of her Mistress These are they that he delights to satiate with his goodness Those that being master'd by a strong sense of their own indigency their pinching and pressing povertie and his All-sufficient fulness trust in him as an Almighty Saviour and in the most ardent manner pursue after that Perfection which his grace is leading them to those that cannot satisfie themselves in a bare performance of some External acts of righteousness or an External observance of a Law without them but with the most greedy and fervent ambition pursue after such an acquaintance with his Divine Spirit as may breath an inward life through all the powers of their Souls and beget in them a vital form and soul of Divine goodness These are the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham the sons of the Free-woman and heirs of the promises to whom all are made Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus These are they which shall abide in the house for ever when the sons of the Bond-woman those that are only Arabian proselytes shall be cast out CHAP. VII An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse How the whole business and Undertaking of Christ is eminently available both to give full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to encourage us to Godliness or a God-like righteousness briefly represented in sundry Particulars FOR the further illustration of some things especially in the latter part of this Discourse it may not be amiss in some Particulars which might easily be enlarged to shew How the Undertaking of Christ that Great Object of Faith is greatly advantageous and available to the giving full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to the encouraging us to Godliness or a true God-like righteousness In the General therefore we may consider That full and evident assurance is given hereby to the world That God doth indeed seek the saving of that which is lost and men are no longer to make any doubt or scruple of it Now what can we imagine more available to carry on a Designe of Godliness and to rouze dul and languid Souls to an effectual minding of their own Salvation then to have this News sounding in their Ears by men that at the first promulgation thereof durst tell them roundly in the Name of God that God required them every where to repent for that his Kingdome of grace was now apparent and that he was not only willing but it was his gracious designe to save recover lost Sinners who had forsaken his Goodness Particularly That the whole business of Christ is very advantageous for this purpose and highly accommodate thereto may appear thus We are fully assured that God hath this forementioned designe upon lost men because here is one viz. Christ that partakes every way of Humane Nature whom the Divinity magnifies it self in and carries through this world in Humane infirmities and Sufferings to Eternal glory a clear manifestation to the World that God had not cast off Humane Nature but had a real mind to exalt and dignifie it again The way into the Holy of holies or to Eternal happiness is laid as open as may be by Christ in his Doctrine Life and Death in all which we may see with open face what Humane Nature may attain to and how it may by Humility Self-denial and divine Love a Christ-like life rise up above all visible heavens into a state of Immortal glory and bliss Here is a manifestation of Love given enough to thaw all the iciness of mens hearts which Self-love had quite frozen up For here is One who in Humane Nature most heartily every where denying himself is ready to doe any thing for the good of Mankind and at last gives up his life for the same pupose and that according to the good will and pleasure of that Eternal love which so loved the World that he gave this beloved and his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Whereas every Penitent Sinner carries a sense of Guilt upon his own Conscience is apt to shrink with cold chill fears of offended Majesty and to dread the thoughts of violated Justice He is assured that Christ hath laid down his life and thereby made propitiation atonement for sin That He hath laid down his life for the Redemption of him and so in Christ we have Redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins Thus may the Hearts of all Penitents troubled at first with sense of their own guilt be quieted and fully establisht in a living Faith and Hope in an Eternal goodness seeing how their Sins are remitted through the bloud of Jesus that came to die for them and save them and through his bloud they may have free access unto God Seeing Sin and Guilt are apt continually to beget a jealousie of God's Majesty and Greatness from whom the Sinner finds himself at a vast distance he is made acquainted with a Mediator through whom he may address himself to God without this jealousie or doubting for that this Mediator likewise is one of Humane Nature that is highly beloved and accepted of God he having so highly pleased God by performing his Will in all things Certainly it is very decorous and much for the Ease of a Penitent's mind as it makes also for the disparagement of Sin that our Addresses to God should be through a Mediator The Platonists wisely observ'd that between the Pure Divinity and Impure Sinners as
and Lucretius of old I shall only adde this That if any of this Sect in our daies has done more then revived and repeated those Principles if any such has superadded any thing of any seeming force and moment to the pretensions of the old Epicureans mention'd in these Tracts the Reader may find it particularly spoken to and fully answered by One whom our Author highly esteem'd Mr. Henry More in his late Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul and in another Discourse intituled An Antidote against Atheism and in the Appendix thereunto annexed I pass on to the Discourse of Prophesie which as it cost the Author more pains I believe then any of the other it containing many considerable Enquiries in an Argument not commonly treated of and more then vulgar Observations out of ancient Jewish writers so did it together with the former part of the next Discourse require more labour to prepare it for the Press and the benefit of the Reader then any of the other Tracts by reason of the many Quotations especially the Hebrew ones to be examin'd in the perusing of which there would sometimes occurr a dubious and dark Expression and then I thought it safest to confer with our Hebrew Professor Dr. Cudworth for whom the Author had alwaies a great affection and respect It 's true This Elaborate Treatise is of a more Speculative nature then any of the rest yet is it also Usefull and contains sundry Observations not only of Light and Knowledg but also of Use and Practice For besides that in this Treatise several Passages of Scripture are illustrated out of Jewish Monuments which is no small instance of its Usefulness there are Two Chapters to name no more viz. 4 and 8. the longest in this Treatise which more particularly relate to Practice and might be if well considered available to the bettering of some mens manners The matter of the Fourth Chapter treating of the Difference between the true Prophetical Spirit and Enthusiastical impostures is seasonably usefull and of no small importance Not to mention any latter Experiments and Proofs how powerful such Enthusiastical impostures have been to disquiet and endanger several parts of Christendom it appears by good History and the Event is yet apparent how strangely that Political Enthusiast Mahomet has befool'd a very great part of the world by his pretensions of being inspir'd and taught by the divine Spirit whispering in his ear by his Epileptical fits pretended Visions and Revelations Thus Mahomet's Dove hath as wonderfully prevailed in the World as of old the Roman Eagles although yet which may abate our wondring at this success this imposturous and pretendedly-inspired Doctrine was not propagated and promoted with a Dove-like Spirit but with force of Arms Mahumetanism cut out its way by the Sword the worst instrument for propagating of Religigion to say nothing of the advantages it had from its compliance with Flesh and blood and a Sensual life and from the Ignorance Rudeness and Barbarism of that people to whom that impure Prophet communicated his Alcoran a people capable of any doctrine how absurd and irrational soever Whereas Christianity was at first promoted and made its way in the world by methods more innocent and worthy of the Doctrine of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ that true and great Prophet of whom the Voice from heaven was Hear ye him after whose revelation of the Counsel and Will of God to man there is not to be expected any new and by him unrevealed Doctrine as pertaining to Life and Godliness and necessary to Salvation Neither is the Eighth Chapter treating of the Dispositions preparatory to Prophesy without its Usefulness there being an easie appliableness of what is contain'd therein to such as are pretenders to Prophesying according to the more general importance of that Word and it may be both a just Reproof and a sober Advice to those who being full of themselves swell'd with Self-conceit and pufft up with an opinion of their own Knowledg and Abilities which yet is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 15. a windy and vain knowledg a knowledg falsely so called 1 Tim. 6. and being wise and righteous in their own eyes take upon them to be most talkative dogmatical pert and magisterial Desiring to be Teachers although they understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm and therefore Modesty and Sparingness of speech and Swiftness to hear would better become such then Empty Confidence and Talkativeness and a powring out words without knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for indeed this is the true account of these men and their performances the weakness and insignificancy of which notwithstanding the strong voice and loud noise of the speakers are easily discerned by those who in understanding are men and have put away childish things What I would further intimate concerning this Treatise Of Prophesy is briefly this That though it be one of the largest Treatises in this Volume yet there are some parts and passages in it which I think the Author would have more enlarged and fill'd up had he not hasten'd to that which according to the method design'd by him he calls The Third Great Principle of Religion But of this I have given an account in an Advertisement at the end of this Treatise as also of the adjoining next to it The Discourse Of the Legal and the Evangelical Righteousness c. which Discourse is a much Practical as the former was Speculative Nor was the composure of that Treatise more painfull to the Author then the elaborating of this at least the former half of this wherein the Author has travers'd loca nullius ante Trita solo the more unknown Records and Monuments of Jewish Authors for the better stating the Jewish Notion of the Righteousness of the Law the clearing of which in chap. 2 and 3. as also the settling the Difference between That Righteousness which is of the Law and That which is of Faith between the Old and the New Covenant and the Account of the Nature of Justification and Divine Acceptance c. are all of them of no small use and consequence but together with the Appendix to this Tract made up of certain brief but comprehensive Observations they offer to the Reader what is not unworthy of his serious consideration Of the Eighth Discourse shewing the Vanity of a Pharisaick Righteousness or Godliness falsly so call'd I have spoken before The next Discourse largely treating of the Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion and Holiness shews the Author's Mind to have been not slightly tinctur'd and wash'd over with Religion but rather to have been double-dyed throughly imbued and coloured with that generosum honestum as the Satyrist not unfitly styles it incoctum generoso pectus honesto But the Author's Life and Actions spake no less and indeed there is no language so fully expressive of a man as the language of his Deeds Those that were
him admires him for this excellent knowledge and composure of words but yet he himself knows not from whence this facultie came to him but is as a child that learns a tongue knows not from whence he had this facultie Now the excellence of this Degree of Divine inspiration is well known to all for it is the same with that which is call'd The Holy Spirit Or if you please we shall render these Definitions of our former Jewish Doctors in the words of Proclus who hath very happily set forth the nature of this piece of Divine inspiration according to their mind in these words lib. 5. in Plat. Tim. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This degree or Enthusiastical character shining so bright with the Intellectual influences is pure and venerable receiving it's perfection from the Father of the Gods being distinct from humane conceptions and far transcending them alwaies conjoined with delightfulness and amazement full of beautie and comeliness concise yet withall exceeding accurate This kind therefore of Divine inspiration was alwaies more pacate and serene then the other of Prophesie neither did it so much fatigate and act upon the Imagination For though these Hagiographi or Holy writers ordinarily expressed themselves in Parables and Similitudes which is the proper work of Phansie yet they seem only to have made use of such a dress of language to set off their own sense of Divine things which in it self was more naked and simple the more advantagiously as we see commonly in all other kind of Writings And seeing there was no labour of the Imagination in this way of Revelation therefore it was not communicated to them by any Dreams or Visions but while they were waking and their Senses were in their full vigour their Minds calme it breathing upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus describes his pious Enthusiast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For indeed this Enthusiastical Spirit seated it self principally in the Higher and Purer faculties of the Soul which were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may allude to the antient opinion of Empedoâ—les who held there were two Suns the one Archetypal which was alwaies in the inconspicable Hemisphear of the World but the beams thereof shining upon this World's Sun were reflected to us and so further enlightned us Now this kind of Inspiration as it alwaies acted pious Souls into strains of Devotion or moved them strongly to dictate matters of true piety and goodness did manifest it self to be of a Divine nature and as it came in abruptly upon the Minds of those holy men without courting their private thoughts but transported them from that Temper of Mind they were in before so that they perceived themselves captivated by the power of some Higher light then that which their own understanding commonly poured out upon them they might know it to be more immediately from God For indeed that seems to be the main thing wherein this Holy Spirit differed from that constant Spirit and frame of Holiness and Goodness dwelling in hallowed minds that it was too quick potent and transporting a thing and was a kind of vital Form to that Light of divine Reason which they were perpetually possess'd of And therefore sometimes it runs out into a Foresight or Prediction of things to come though it may be those Previsions were less understood by the Prophet himself as if it were needfull we might instance in some of David's prophesies which seem to have been revealed to him not so much for himself as the Apostle speaks as for us But it did not alwaies spend it self in Strains of Devotion or Dictates of Vertue Wisdom and Prudence and therefore if I may take leave here to express my conjecture I should think the antient Jews called this Degree Spiritus Sanctus not because it flows from the Third Person in the Trinity which I doubt they thought not of in this business but because of the near affinitie and alliance it hath with that Spirit of Holiness and true Goodness that alwaies lodgeth in the breasts of Good men And this seems to be insinuated in an old proverbial speech of the Jewish Masters quoted by Maimonides in the fore-quoted place Majestas Divina habitat super eum loquitur per Spiritum Sanctum Though some think it might be so called as being the lowest Degree of Divine Inspiration for sometimes the ancientest Monuments of Jewish learning call all Prophesie by the name of Spiritus Sanctus So in Pirke R. Eliezer c. 39. R. Phineas inquit Requievit Spiritus Sanctus super Josephum ab ipsius juventute usque ad diem obitûs ejus atque direxit eum in omnem sapientiam c. The Holy Spirit rested upon Joseph from his youth till the day of his death and guided him into all wisdome c. Though it may be all that might be but an Hagiographical Spirit For indeed the Jews are wont as we shew'd before to distinguish Joseph's dreams from Prophetical But this Spiritus Sanctus in the same chap. to put all out of doubt is attributed to Esaiah and Ezekiel which were known Prophets and chap. 33. R. Phineas ait Postquam omnes illi interfecti fuerant viginti annis in Babel requievit Spiritus Sanctus super Ezekielem eduxit eum ex convalle Dora ostendit ei multa ossa c. And among those five things that the Jews alwaies supposed the Second Temple to be inferior to the First in one was the want of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus Sanctus or Spirit of Prophesie But we are here to consider this Spiritus Sanctus more strictly and as we have formerly defin'd it out of Jewish antiquity And here we shall first shew what Books of the Old Testament were ascribed to this Degree by the Jews The Old Testament was by the Jews divided into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law the Prophets and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this division is insinuated in Luke 24. 44. And Jesus said unto them These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written concerning me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms where by the Psalms may seem to be meant the Hagiographa for the Writers of these Hagiographa might be termed Psalmodists for some Reasons which we shall touch upon hereafter in this Discourse But to return the Old Testament being antiently divided into these parts it may not be amiss to consider the Order of these parts as it is laid down by the Talmudical Doctors in Gemara Bava Bathra c. 1. towards the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Doctors have delivered unto us this Order of the Prophets Joshua Judges Samuel Kings Jeremiah Ezekiel Isaiah and the Twelve Prophets the First of which is Hosea for so they understand those words in Hos. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus inprimis locutus est per Hoseam The same Gemarists
Israelites became shining and clear without any defilement and their Bodies did shine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the brightness of the Firmament And then thus concludeth all When the Israelites received the Law upon Mount Sinai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world was then perfum'd with a most aromatick smell and Heaven and Earth were established and the Holy Blessed One was known above and below and he ascended in his glory above all things By all which Mystical and Allegorical Expressions our Author seems to aim at this main Scope viz. To set forth the Law as that which of it self was sufficient without any other Dispensation from God for the perfecting of those to whom it was dispensed and to make them Comprehensours of all Righteousness here and Glory hereafter Which they are wont to set forth in that transcendent state of Perfection which the Israelites were in at the receiving of the Law whence it hath been an ancient Maxime amongst them In Statione montis Sinai Israelitae erant sicut Angeli ministerii And thus we have endeavoured to make good that which we first propounded namely to shew That the grand Opinion of the Jews concerning the way to Life and Happiness was this viz. That the Law of God externally dispensed and only furnished out to them in Tables of Stone and a Parchment-roll conjoined with the power of their own Free-will was sufficient both to procure them acceptance with God and to acquire Merit enough to carry them with spread sails into the Harbour of Eternal rest and blessedness So that by this time we may see that those Disputes which S. Paul and other Apostles maintain against the Jews touching the Law and Faith were not merely about that one Question Whether Justification formally and precisely respects Faith alone but were of a much greater latitude CHAP. IV. The Second Enquiry Concerning the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith and the true difference between the Law and the Gospel the Old and the New Covenant as it is laid down by the Apostle Paul A more General Answer to this enquiry together with a General observation of the Apostle's main End in opposing Faith to the Works of the Law viz. To beat down the Jewish proud conceit of Merit A more particular and Distinct answer to the Enquiry viz. That the Law or Old Covenant is considered only as an External administration a dead thing in it self a Dispensation consisting in an Outward and Written Law of Precepts But the Gospel or New Covenant is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men an Inward manifestation of Divine life and a living Impression upon the Minds and Spirits of Men. This proved from several Testimonies of Scripture HAving done with the First Enquiry we now come to the Second which was this What the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith is which the Apostle sets up against that of the Law and in what Notion the Law is considered by the Apostle Which in summe was this viz. That the Law was the Ministery of death and in it self an External and Liveless thing neither could it procure or beget that Divine life and spiritual Form of Godliness in the Souls of men which God expects from all the heirs of Glory nor that Glory which is only consequent upon a true Divine life Whereas on the other side the Gospel is set forth as a mighty Efflux and Emanation of life and spirit freely issuing forth from an Omnipotent source of Grace and Love as that true God-like vital influence whereby the Divinity derives it self into the Souls of men enlivening and transforming them into its own likeness and strongly imprinting upon them a Copy of its own Beauty and Goodness Like the Spermatical virtue of the Heavens which spreads it self freely upon this Lower world and subtily insinuating it self into this benummed feeble earthly Matter begets life and motion in it Briefly It is that whereby God comes to dwell in us and we in him But that we may the more distinctly unfold the Difference between That Righteousness which is of the Law That which is of Faith so the better shew how the Apostle undermines that fabrick of Happiness which the Jews had built up for themselves we shall observe First in general That the main thing which the Apostle endeavours to beat down was that proud and arrogant conceit which they had of Merit and to advance against it the notion of the Divine grace and bounty as the only Fountain of all Righteousness and Happiness For indeed that which all those Jewish notions which we have before taken notice of aim principally at was the advancing of the weakened Powers of Nature into such an height of Perfection as might render them capable of Meriting at Gods hands and that Perfection which they speak so much of as is clear from what hath been said was nothing else but a mere sublimation of their own Natural Powers and Principles performed by the strength of their own Fancies And therefore these Contractors with Heaven were so pleased to look upon Eternal life as a fair Purchase which they might make for themselves at their own charge as if the spring and rise of all were in themselves their eyes were so much dazled with those foolish fires of Merit and Reward kindled in their own Fancies that they could not see that light of Divine grace and bounty which shone about them And this Fastus and swelling pride of theirs if I mistake not is that which S. Paul principally endeavours to chastise in advancing Faith so much as he doth in opposition to the works of the Law For which purpose he spends the First and Second Chapters of this Epistle to the Romans in drawing up a charge of such a nature both against Gentiles and Jews but principally against the Jews who were the grand Justitiaries that might make them bethink themselves of imploring Mercy and of laying aside all plea of Law and Justice and so chap. 3. 27. he shuts up all with a severe check to such presumptuous arrogance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where then is boasting This seems then to be the main End which S. Paul every where aims at in opposing Faith to the works of the Law namely to establish the Foundation of Righteousness and Happiness upon the Free mercy and grace of God the glorifying and magnifying of which in the real manifestations of it he holds forth upon all occasions as the designe plot of the Gospel-administration seeing it is impossible for men by any Works which they can perform to satisfie God's Justice for those Sins which they have committed against him or truly to comply with his Divine will without his Divine assistance So that the Method of reconciling men to God and reducing of straying Souls back again to him was to be attributed wholy to another Original then that which the Jews imagined But Secondly That