Soul yet it has no just Title much less a Right of Inheritance in it For Sin is but a Stranger and Foreiner in the Soul an Usurper and Intruder into the Lord's Inheritance Sin it is no Nature as S. Austin and others of the Fathers often inculcate but an adventitious and extraneous thing and the true and ancient Nature of the Soul of Man suffers violence under it and is oppressed by it It is nothing else but the Preternatural state of Rational Beings and therefore we have no reason to think it must needs be perpetual and unalterable It is a strange thing that a jarring Instrument by the hand of a skilful Musician should ever be set in tune again Doubtless if an Instrument of Musick were a Living thing it would be sensible of Harmony as its proper state and abhorre Discord and Dissonancy as a thing preternatural to it The Soul of Man was Harmonical as God at first made it till Sin disordering the Strings and Faculties put it out of tune and marr'd the Musick of it but doubtless that Great Harmostes that tunes the whole World and makes all things keep their Times and Measures is able to set this lesser Instrument in Tune again Sin is but a Disease and Dyscrasie in the Soul Righteousness is the Health and natural Complexion of it and there is a Propension in the nature of every thing to return to its proper state and to cast off whatever is heterogeneous to it And some Physicians tell us that Medicaments are but subservient to Nature by removing obstructions and impediments but Nature it self and the inward Archoeus released and set at liberty works the Cure Bodies when they are bent out of their Place and violently forced out of the natural Position of their Parts have a Spring of their own and an inward strong Propension to return to their own natural Posture which produceth that Motion of Restitution that Philosophers endeavour to give a reason of As for example Air may be forced into much a lesser room then it would naturally expand itself into but whilst it is under this Violence it hath a Spring or strong Conatus to return to its proper state of which several ingenious Observations have been lately published by a Learned hand Now Sin being a Violent and preternatural state and a Sinner's returning to God and Righteousness being Motus Restitutionis Liberationis whereby the Soul is restored to its true Freedome and ancient Nature why should there not be such an Elater or Spring in the Soul quickened and enlivened by Divine Grace such a natural Conatus of returning to its proper state again Doubtless there is and the Scripture seems sometimes to acknowledge it and call it by the name of Spirit when it speaketh of our free acting in God's waies from an inward Principle For the Spirit is not alwaies to be taken for a Breath or Impulse from without but also for an inward Propension of the Soul awakened and revived in it to return to its proper state as it is Intellectual and then to act freely in it according to its ancient Nature For if the Spirit were a mere External Force acting upon the Soul without the concurrence of an Innate Principle then to be acted by the Spirit would be a state of Violence to the Soul which it could not delight alwaies to continue under whereas the state of the Spirit is a state of Freedome and not of Violence as the Apostle witnesseth when he calls it the Freedome of the Spirit It is the Soul 's acting from an inward Spring and Principle of its own Intellectual nature not by a mere outward Impulse like a Boat that is tugged on by Oars or driven by a strong blast of Wind. Wherefore the Soul 's returning from Sin to Righteousness which is its Primitive Nature must needs have great advantages it going on Secundo flumine according to the genuine Current of its true Intellectual nature and having besides the assistence of a gentle Gale of the Divine Spirit from without to help it forwards Why should it be thought so great an impossibility for men willingly to doe that which is agreeable to the Laws of Goodness since this is the genuine Nature of the Soul when once it is freed from mistakes and encumbrances from that which is heterogeneous and adventitious to it that cloggs it and oppresses it and every Life and Nature acts freely according to its own Propensions Why should it seem strange that the Superiour Faculties of the Soul should become predominant since they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Lordly nature and made to rule and the Inferiour Faculties of a servile Temper and made to be subject Why should it seem impossible for Equity Light and Reason to be inthroned in the Soul of Man again and there to command and govern those exorbitant Affections that do so lawlesly rebel against them For if some grave Commanders and Generals have been able by the Majesty of their very looks to hush and silence a disorderly and mutinous Rout of Souldiers certainly Reason re-enthroned in her Majestick Seat and re-invested with her ancient Power and Authority which is natural and not usurped would much more easily be able to check and controll the tumultuous Rabble of Lusts and Passions in us Doubtless God hath no other Design upon us in Religion and the Gospel of his Son then what is for our good and to restore us to the Rectitude and Perfection of our own Beings Wherefore he seeks to redeem and call off our Affections from the perishing Vanities of this World which being so infinitely below us do debase and pollute our Spirits wherefore he would not have us to addict ourselves wholly to the Gratifications of our lower Faculties which are but the Brute in us but he would have the Best in us to be uppermost the Man to rule the Brute and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that is of God in us to rule our Manly and Rational Faculties He would not have us Narcissus-like to be alwaies courting our own Shadow in the Stream for according to the ancient Democritical Philosophy this whole visible World is nothing else but mere extended Bulk and hath nothing Real in it but Atomes or Particles of a different Magnitude diversely placed and agitated in a continual Whirlpool But all the Colour Beauty and Varnish all that which charms and bewitches us in these Objects without us is nothing but the Vital Sensations and Relishes of our own Souls This gives all the Paint and Lustre to those Beauties which we court and fall in love withall without us which are otherwise as devoid of Reality and as Phantastical as the Colours of the Rainbow So that this Outward World is not unfitly compared to an inchanted Palace which seems indeed mighty pleasing and ravishing to our deluded Sense whereas all is but imaginary and a mere prestigious Shew Those things which we are enamoured with thinking
men do illegally and unlawfully break loose from the Law which is their Husband whilst he is yet alive and ought to have Dominion over them and marry themselves to another Husband which Husband 's name is Carnal Liberty or Licentiousness too often miscalled in these latter Times by the name of Christian Liberty and such as these may well be styled in the Scripture-language Adulterers and Adulteresses But there is another Freedome from the Law which is a due and just Freedome when we do not make our selves free before the time violently breaking loose from it but when we stay till the Law which is our Husband is dead and the Compulsory power of it taken away by the Mortification of our Lusts and Affections and so marry another Husband which is Christ or the Spirit of Righteousness Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Wherefore there are Three general states of Men in order to God and Religion that may be here taken notice of The First is of those that are alive to Sin and dead to the Law This the Apostle speaks of Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once These are those whose Consciences are not yet considerably awakened to any Sense of their Duty nor to the Discrimination of Good and Evil but sin freely without any check or controll without any disquieting Remorse of Conscience The Second is when men are at once alive both to the Law and Sin to the Conviction of the one and the Power and Love of the other both these strugling together within the Bowels of the Soul checking and controlling one another This is a broken confounded and shatter'd state and these in the Apostles language are said to be Slain by the Law I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death For Sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it Slew me Here is no Peace Rest nor Comfort to be had in this state mens Souls being distracted and divided by an intestine and civil Warr between the Law of the Minde and the Law of the Members conflicting with one another Wherefore the Third state is when men are dead both to the Law and Sin and alive unto God and Righteousness the Law of the Spirit of Life freeing them from the Law of Sin and Death In the First of these Three states which is the most wretched and deplorable of all we are Sin 's Free-men that is free to commit Sin without check or controll In the Second we are Bondmen to God and Righteousness and serve God out of a Principle of Fear and according to an outward Rule onely Children of Hagar the Bond-maid and of the Letter In the Third we are God's Free-men and Sons and serve him in the Newness of the Spirit out of a Love to God and Righteousness Children of the New Testament and of Sarah the Free-woman Wherefore here are Two Mistakes or Errors to be taken notice of that defeat and disappoint the Design of Christ in giving us Victory over the Law The first is of those that we have already mentioned that seek to themselves a Freedome from the Bondage of the Law otherwise then by Christ and the Spirit of Righteousness namely in a way of Carnal Liberty and Licentiousness whereby instead of being Bond-men to God and Righteousness they become perfect Free-men to Sin and Wickedness which is the most deplorable Thraldome in the World Wherefore these men instead of going forward from the Second state unto higher Perfection wheel back again unto the First just as if the Children of Israel after they had been brought out of Egypt and travelled awhile in the Desert of Arabia where the Law was given instead of entring into Canaan should have wheeled back into Egypt and then enjoying the Garlick and Onions and Flesh-pots thereof should persuade themselves that this was indeed the true Land of Promise that floweth with Milk and Honey And there is very great danger lest when men have been tired out by wandring a long time in the dry and barren Wilderness of the Law where they cannot enjoy the Pleasure of Sin as formerly and yet have not arrived to the relish and love of Righteousness by reason of their Impatience they should at last make more haste then good speed being seduced by some false shews of Freedome that are very tempting to such weary Travellers and promise much comfort and refreshment to them inviting them to sit down under their shadow Such as are a Self-chosen Holiness Ceremonial Righteousness Opinionative Zeal The Tree of Knowledge mistaken for the Tree of Life High-flown Enthusiasm and Seraphicism Epicurizing Philosophy Antinomian Liberty under the pretence of Free Grace and a Gospel-Spirit The Second Mistake that is here to be heeded is of those that would by all means persuade themselves that there is no higher State of Christian Perfection to be aimed at or hoped for in this Life then this Legal State That the Good they would doe they doe not the Evil they would not doe that they doe That the Law of Sin in their Members still leads them Captive from the Law of their Minds having no other Ground at all for this but a novel Interpretation of one Paragraph in the Epistle to the Romans contrary to other express Places of Scripture and the Sense of all ancient Interpreters and yet with so much zeal as if it were a principal part of the Gospel-Faith to believe this which is indeed arrant Infidelity and as if it were no less then Presumption or Impiety to expect a Living Law written upon our Hearts But this is nothing else but instead of seeking Liberty out of the Bondage of the Law to fall in love with our Bonds and Fetters and plainly to deny the Victory over the Law by Christ and to affirm that the Gospel is but the Ministration of a dead and killing Letter not of the Spirit that quickneth and maketh alive I Come now in the Third and last place to the Victory over Death expressed by the Resurrection of the Body to Life and Immortality which as it was meritoriously procured for us by Christ's dying upon the Cross his Resurrection afterward being an assured pledge of the same to us so it will be really effected at last by the same Spirit of Christ that gives us Victory over Sin here Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you As if he should have said If the Spirit of Christ dwell in you regenerating and renewing your Souls the very same Spirit hereafter shall also immortalize your very Bodies Avicen the Mahumetan Philosopher in his Almahad hath a conceit That the
otherwise altogether unwarrantable in themselves may notwithstanding be justified by Zeal for God and good Ends. But God needs no mans Zeal to promote an Imaginary Interest of his in the World by doing unjust things for him Will you speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him will you accept his Person 'T was the generous Expostulation of Job with his Friends and he tells them in the following words that this was nothing else but to mock God as one man mocketh another True Divine Zeal is no Corybantick Fury but a calm and regular Heat guided and managed by Light and Prudence and carried out principally neither for nor against Indifferent Rites and unnecessary Opinions but those things that are immutably Good and Fundamental to Christianity alwaies acknowledging a due Subordination to that Authority Civil and Ecclesiastical that is over us Lastly Some there are whose pretence to Religion and the Spirit is founded in nothing else but a Faculty of Rhetoricating and extemporizing with Zeal and Fervency which they take to be nothing less then Divine Inspiration and that which the Scripture calls Praying in the Holy Ghost an undoubted Character of a person truly Regenerated Which being a great delusion whereby many are hindred from seeking after the real effects of the Divine Spirit by idolizing instead thereof that which is merely Natural if not Artificial I think it not impertinent here to speak a little of it And certainly that which is frequently attained to in the very height by persons grosly hypocritical and debauched can never be concluded to be Divine Inspiration or to proceed from any higher Principle then mere Natural Enthusiasm For there is not onely a Poetical Enthusiasm of which Plato discourseth in his Ion but though Oratory be a more sober thing a Rhetorical Enthusiasm also that makes men very eloquent affectionate and bewitching in their language beyond what the power of any bare Art and Precepts could inable them unto insomuch that both these Poets and Orators have oftentimes conceited themselves to be indeed divinely inspired as those known Verses testify Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus illo and Sedibus aethereis Spiritus ille venit And concerning Orators the like might be proved if the time would here permit by sundry Testimonies But I shall here instance onely in Aristides a famous Orator who not onely speaks positively of himself as inspired in his Oratiòns but affirms the same also concerning Rhetorick in general when it is extraordinary that it comes by immediate Inspiration as Oracles and Prophecies doe and not from Art or Nature Wherefore it is not at all to be wondred at if when men are employed in Religious and Devotional Exercises the same Natural Enthusiasm especially having the advantage of Religious Melancholy which makes men still more Enthusiastical should so wing and inspire the Phancies of these Religious Orators as to make them wonderfully fluent eloquent and rapturous so that they beget strange Passions in their Auditors and conclude themselves to be Divinely inspired Whereas notwithstanding they may have no more of Divine Inspiration in all this then those Poets and Orators before mentioned had that is to say be no otherwise inspired then by a Rhetorical Hypochondriacal Enthusiasm that is merely Natural But it is farre from my Intention here to disparage the sincere and ardent Affections of devout Souls naturally and freely breathing out their earnest Desires unto God in private although perhaps this be not without some kind of Enthusiasm also For Enthusiasm as well as Zeal and other Natural things may be well used and being rightly circumstantiated and subservient to a better principle become irreprehensible Some have observed that no great work of the Brain that begot much admiration in the World was ever atchieved without some kind of Enthusiasm and the same may be affirmed of the most transcendently Vertuous and Heroical Actions But then the Goodness of these Actions is never to be estimated merely by the Degree of Enthusiastick Heat and Ardor that is in them but by such other Laws and Circumstances as Moralize humane Actions Wherefore my meaning as I said before is onely this To caution against that Vulgar and Popular Error of mistaking the Natural and Enthusiastick Fervour of mens spirits and the Ebulliency of their Phancy when it is tinctur'd with Religion and idolizing of it instead of the supernatural Grace of God's Holy Spirit and of looking for the Effect of Religion and Demonstration of God's Spirit principally in Words and Talk or thinking that God is chiefly glorified with a loud Noise and long Speeches For the true Demonstration of God's Holy Spirit is no-where to be look'd for but in Life and Action or such earnest and affectionate breathings after a farther participation of the Divine Image as are accompanied with real and unfeigned endeavours after the same which is the true Praying in the Holy Ghost though there be no extemporaneous effusion of words And therefore when some Corinthians were puffed up by reason of a Faculty which they had of Rhetoricating Religiously S. Paul like an Apostle tells them that he would come amongst them and know not the Speech of them that were puffed up but the Power For the Kingdome of God saith he consisteth not in Word but in Power and Life Wherefore laying aside these and such like childish mistakes and things that are little to the purpose let us seriously apply our selves to the main Work of our Religion that is to mortify and vanquish our Sinful Lusts by the Assistence of God's Holy Spirit through Faith in Christ that so being Dead to Sin here we may live with God eternally hereafter The End Verse 17. Rom. 4. In Iggereth Teman Psal. 106. Luke 24. 1 Cor. 15. 27. Verse 24. Verse 28. 2 Cor. 3. Revel 3. 19. 1 Pet. 4. 1. Prov. 17. 15. Phll. 3. 12. 1 Joh. 3. 9. Ezck. 20. 25. * See Gemara in Chetuboth cap. 13. Ein Is-rael num 50. * In Nachalath Avoth cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the very same with the opinion of the Christians that hold that after the Resurrection men shall not eat drink marry or be given in marriage or die again but continue eternally in those Bodies resembling the Heavenly Bodies and these they vulgarly call Glorified Bodies 1 Cor. 4. 19.