their rest in them Neither is it the pursuing of any interest that will denominate them religious but the grand interest of their Souls 2. A godly Soul in his more inward and spiritual acts hath not his motive without him For a man may be somewhat more inward in his motions and yet as outward in his motives as the former Religions acts and gracious motions are not originally and primarily caused by some weights hung upon the Soul either by God or men neither by the worldly Blessings which God gives nor the heavy afflictions which he sends The Wings by which the godly Soul flies out towards God are not waxt to him as the Poets feign Icarus's to have been but they grow out of himself as the wings of an Eagle that flies swiftly towards Heaven On the other side a Soul may be press down unto humiliation under the heavy weight of Gods Judgements that has no mind to stoop no self-denying or self-debasing disposition in it Thus you may see Jehu flying upon the Wings of Ambition and Revenge born up by successes in his Government and his Predecessor Ahab bowing down mournfully under an heavy Sentence The Laws and Penalties and Encouragements and Observations of men do sometimes put a weight upon the Soul too but they beget a more sluggish uneven and unkindly motion in it You may expect that under this head I should speak something of Heaven and Hell and truly so I may very pertinently for I think they do belong to this place If you take Heaven properly for a sull and glorious union to God and fruition of him and Hell for an eternal separation and stragling from the Divinity and suppose that the love of God and the fear of living without him be well drunk into the Soul then verily these are pure and religious Principles But if we view them as things meerly without us and reserved for us and under those common carnal notions of delectableness and dreadfulness they are no higher nor better motives to us than the carnal Jews had in the Wilderness when they turned their Backs upon Egypt where they had been in bondage and set their Faces towards Canaan where they hoped to find Milk and Honey Peace Plenty and Liberty A Soul is not carried to Heaven as a Body is carried to the Grave upon mens Shoulders it is not born up by Props whether humane or divine nor carried to God in a Charior as a man is carried to see his Friend The holy fire of ardenâ— Love wherein the Soul of Elijah had been long carried up towards God was something more excellent and indeed more desirable than the Fiery Chariot by which his Body and Soul were translated together Religion is a spring of motion which God hath put into the Soul it self And aâ— all things that are external whether actions or motives are excluded in this Examination which we make of Religion So neither 2. Must we allow of every thing that is internal to be Religion And therefore 1. It is not a fit a start a sudden passion of the mind caused by the power and strength of some present Conviction in the Soul which in a hot mood will needs make out after God in all haste This may fitly be compared to the rash and rude motion of the Host of Israel who being chidden for their slothfulness over night rose up early in the morning and gat them up into the top of the Mountain saying Lo we be here and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised for we have sinned Numb 14. 40. And indeed it â—ares with these men oftentimes as it did with those both as to the undertaking and as to the success their motion is as sinful as their station and their success is answerable they are driven back and discomfited in their enterprize Nay though this passion might arise so high as to be called an extasie or a rapture yet it deserves not the name of Religion For Religion is as one speaks elegantly like the natural heaâ— that is radicated in the hearts of living Creatures which hath the dominion of the whole body and sends forth warm Blood and Spirits and vital nourishment into every part and Member it regulateâ— and orders the motions of it in a due and even manner But these extatical Soulâ— though they may blaze like a Comet and swell like a torrent or land-flood for a time and shoot forth fresh and high for a little season are soon extinguished emptied and dried up because they have not a Principle a stock to spend upon or as our Saviour speaks no root in themselves These mens motions and actions bear no more proportion to Religion than a Land-flood that swells high and runs swiftly but it is only during the rain or in the Scripture-phrase no more than a morning-dew that soon passes away Hos 6. 4. is like a Well or Fountain of Water 2. If Religion be a Principle a new Nature in the Soul then it is not a meeâ— Mechanismâ— â— piece of Art Art imitates Nature nothing more ordinary I doubt than for Religion it self that new Nature to go into an Art I need not tell you how all the external acts and shootings forth of Religion may be dissembled and imitated by Art and be acted over by a mimical apish Pharisâ—â— who finds nothing at all of the gentle and mighty heaâ— not the divine and noble life of it in his own Soul whereby he may fairly deceive the creduâ—ous World as I have partly hinted already But it is possible I wish it be not common for men that are somewhat more convinced enlightened and affected to imitate the very power and spirit of Religion and to deceive themselves too as if they possest some true living Principle and herein they exceed the most exquisite Painters Now this may be done by the power of a quick and raised Fancy men hearing such glorious things spoken of Heaven the City of the great King the New Jerusalem may be carried out by the power of self-Love to wish themselves there being mightily taken with a conceit of the place But how shall they come at it Why they have seen in Books and heard in discourses of certain signs of Grace and evidences of Salvation and now they set their fancies on work to find or make some such things in themselves Fancy is well acquainted with the several Affections of Love Fear Joy Grief which are in the Soul and having a great command over the animal Spirits it can send them forth to raise up these Affections even almost when it listeth and when it hath raised them it is but putting to some thoughts of God and Heaven and then these look like a handsome platform of true Religion drawn in the Soul which they presently view and fall in love with and think they do even taste of the powers of the world to come when indeed it is nothing but a self-fulness and sufficiency
Though faith abhors the blasphâ—my of laying blame upon God yet it so fixes the soul upon him and causes her so to eye his hand and end in all mal-administrations of men that she hath no leisure to fall out with men or quarrel with instruments These Discontents I said were frequently attended with an evil and seditious zeal for relaxation discovering itself in secret treacherous conspiracies and many times in boisterous and daring attempts These are at the first sight so directly contrary to the character given of Religious men viz. the Psal 35. 20. Gal. 5. 22 23. Col. 3. 12 13 14 15 16. quiet of the Land and the genius of Religion which is wholly made up of love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness temperance mercy kindness humbleness of mind forbearance forgiveness charity thankfulness wisdom that it is easie to conceive that Religion in the power of it would certainly heal this evil disease also There are many pretenders to Religion whose complaint is still concerning oppression and persecution their cry is all for liberty and deliverance but to make it the more passable and plausible they stile it the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ This pretence is so fair but withall so deceitfull that I count it worth my time to speak a little more liberally to it And here I do from the very bottom of my soul protest that I account the advancement of the glory of God and the Kingdom of Christ to be the most desirable thing in the World and that it is highly becoming the greatest spirits upon earth to employ the very utmost zeal and diligence to assist the accomplishment thereof yea so utterly do I abhor irreligion and Atheism that as the Apostle speaks in somewhat a like case I do verily Phil. 1. 18. rejoyce that Christ is professed though it be but pretended and that truth is owned though it be not owned in truth I will further add that the oppressing and obstructing of the external progress and propagation of the Gospel is hated of Christ and to be lamented of all true Christians Yea I will further allow men a due sensibleness of their personal oppressions and injuries and a natural warrantable desire to be redeemed from them And now having thus purged my self I entreat the Christian Reader patiently and without prejudice to suffer me to speak somewhat closely to this matter Yea I do verily assure my self that I shall be accepted or at least indulged by all free and ingenuous spirits who are rightly acquainted with the genius of Christian Religion and do preferr truth before interest And first For the complaint that is mostly concerning oppression and persecution certainly Religion if it did rightly prevail in our hearts would very much heal this distemper if not by a perfect silencing of these complaints yet surely by putting them into another tune I reckon that Religion quite silences these complaints when it engages the soul so entirely in serving the end of God in afflictions and in a right improvement of them for religious purposes that she list not to spend her self in fruitless murmurings and unchristian indignations As fire seizeth upon every thing that is combustible and makes it fewel for itself and a predominant humour in the body converts into its own substance whatever is convertible and makes it nourishment to itself so doubtless this spirit of burning this divine principle if it were rightly predominant in the soul would nourish itself by all things that lye in its way though they seem never so heterogeneous and hard to be digested and rather than want meat it would with Sampson fetch it out of the very eater himself But if Religion should not utterly silence these complainings by rendring the soul thus forgetful of the body and regardless of its smart in comparison of the happy advantage that may be made of it yet methinks it should draw the main stream of these tears into an other channel and put these complaints into an other tune It is very natural to the Religious soul to make God all things unto itself to lay to heart the interest of truth and holiness more than any particular interest of its own and to bewail the disservice done to God more than any self-incommodation Must not he needs be a good subject to his Prince who can more heartily mourn that Gods Laws are not kept than that he himself is kept under that can be more grieved that men are cruel than that they kill him that can be more troubled because there are oppressions in the world than because he himself is oppressed such subjects Religion alone can make As for the Cry that is made for liberty and deliverance I confess I do not easily apprehend what is more or more naturally desirable than true liberty yea I believe there are many devout and Religious souls that from a right noble and generous principle and out of a sincere respect to the Author and End of their creation are almost intemperately studiouâ— of it do prefer it above all prefermeâ—◠〈◊〉 hing that may be properly 〈◊〉 â—â—sual and would purchase it with any thing that they can possibly part with But yet that I may a little moderate if not quite stifle this cry I must freely profess that I do apprehend too much of sensuality generally in it because this liberty is commonly abstracted from the proper end of it and desired meerly as a naturally convenient good and not under a right religious consideration Self-love is the very heart and centre of the animal life and doubtless this natural principle is as truly covetous of self-preservation and freedom from all inconveniences grievances and confinements as any Religious principle can be And therefore I may well allude to our Saviours words and say If you love and desire Mat. 5. 47. deliverance only under the notion of a natural good what do you more than others Do not even Publicans the same But were this divine principle rightly exercising its Soveraignty in the soul it would value all things and all estates and conditions only as they have a tendency to the advancement and nourishment of itself With what an ordinary not to say disdainfull eye would the Religious soul look upon the fairest self-accommodations in the world and be ready to say within itself What is a meer abstract deliverance from afflictions worth Wherein is a naked freedom from afflictions to be accounted of Will this make me a blessed man Was not profane and impudent Ham delivered from the deluge of Water as well as his brethren Were not the filthy shameless daughters of Lot delivered from the deluge of Fire as well as their Father And yet we are so far from rising up and calling these people blessed that the heart of every chast and modest Christian is ready to rise against the very mention of their names when he remembers how both the one and the other though in a different sense
this spring from a Religious principle think ye or a selfish Doth it not agree well to the animal life and natural self to be tender of its own interest and concernments to wish well to its own safety to defend it self from violence May I not allude to our Saviours words and say If ye hate them that hate you Mat. 5. 46. how can that be accounted Religious Do not even the Publicans the same I doubt we know not sufficiently what spirit we should be of The power of Religion rightly prevailing in the soul would mold us into another kind of temper it would teach us as well to love and pitty and pray for Papists Mat. 5. 44. Rev. 19. 20 21. as to hate Popery I know the Prophesie indeed that the Beast and the false Prophet shall be cast alive into the lake burning with brimstone and the remnant shall be slain with the sword of him that sate upon the horse But in as much as that sword is said to proceed out of his mouth I would Eph. 6. 17. Hos. 6. 5. gladly interpret it of the word of God which kills men unto Salvation However let the interpretation of that Text and others of the like importance be what it will I reckon it very unsafe to turn all the Prophesies and threatnings of God into Prayers lest haply we should be found to contribute to the damning of mens souls Yea when all is 2 Thes 2. 12. said concerning the reprobating decrees of God and his essential inflexible punitive justice and all those Texts that seem to speak of Gods revenging himself with delight are interpreted to the utmost harshness of meaning that the cruel wit of man can invent yet it remains a sealed and to me a sweet truth I have no pleasure in the Ezek. 18. 32. chap. 33. 11. death of him that dyeth saith the Lord God and again As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Wherefore to wave all those dreadfull glosses that do rather describe the bitter and revengefull ingeny of man that makes them than interpret the pure and perfect nature of God upon whom they are made let us attend to that beautiful character that is every where given of Religion which is Exod. 32. 32. Numb 11. 29. Rom. 92 3. Luke 19. 10. Acts 10. 38. Rom. 5. 6. our highest concernment in the person of Moses of Paul and of Christ Jesus himself the Author and exemplar of it who by his incarnation life and death abundantly demonstrated the infinite Benignity and compassionate ardours of his soul towards us when we were worse than Papists as being out of a possibility of salvation without him and let that mind be in us which was in him also Though it be not directly our Saviours meaning in my Text yet I believe it is reductâ—vely that this pure and divine principle Religion springs up into everlasting life not only our own but other mens also But however Religion is described sure I am it is most unnatural to the Religious soul that is regenerated into the pure spirit of piety pitty and universal charity to be of a cruel fierce revengeful damning disposition And therefore whatever are the Ranting and Wrathful strains of some mens Devotions I beseech the Reader to endeavour with me that Charity towards mens souls may go along in conjunction with zeal and piety towards God when we present our selves before the throne of his grace And so I am confident it will if we pray sincerely to this purpose viz. That God would cause the wickedness of the wicked to come to an end that he would consume the Antichrist but Convert the Papist and make the wonderers after the beast to become followers of the Lamb I doubt there are many that think they can never be too liberal in wishing ill to the Papists nay they count it a notable argument of a good Protestant I had almost said an evidence of grace to be very raging and invective against them Alas how miserably do we bewray our selves in so doing to be nothing less than what we pretend to by doing it For are not we our selves herein Antichristian whilest we complain of their cruelties our own souls in the very act boyling over with Revengefull and scalding affections If we do indeed abhor their cruelty because it is contrary to the holy precepts of the Gospel and the true Kingdom of Christ we ought to be as jealous at the same time lest any thing like unto it should be found in our selves otherwise are we not carnal For meer nature as I have often said will abhor any thing that is contrary to it self and will not willingly suffer its delicate interest to be toucht The Apostle tells us that no man speaking by the Spirit of Christ calleth Christ accursed 1 Cor 12. 3. But I doubt it is common to curse Antichrist and yet by a spirit that is Antichristian I mean carnal selfish cruel and uncharitable For there is a spiritual Antichrist or if you will in the Apostles phrase a Spirit of Antichrist as well as a political 1 John 4. 3. Antichrist and I doubt the former prevails most in the world though it be least discerned and bann'd Men do by Antichrist as they do by the Devil defie him in words but entertain him in their hearts run away from the appearance of him and in the mean time can be well enough content to be all that in very deed which the Devil and Antichrist is All this evidently appears to be for want of the true power and spirit of Religion which I commend for so great a healer even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our distempers Perhaps no Papist will find in his heart to read this Epistle written by a Heretick yet possibly too some one or other may therefore I will adventure briefly to prescribe this same medicinal Divinity to them also though perhaps I might be excused upon another account all that which I have hitherto said to distempered Protestants being rightly enough mutatis mutandis applicable to them But moreover whereas they value their Church and the truth and rightness of it by its universality and prosperity the power of Religion would make men to value themselves and their adherents only by the divine impressions of piety and purity and to account such only worthy of the glorious title of Apostolical and children of God who are sincere followers of the Apostles wherein they were followers of Christ viz. in true holiness and righteousness Are they industrious and zealous for the Proselyting of the world and spreading of their interest far and near And are not all wicked men yea and the Devil himself so too The fairest and most flourishing state of a Church is nothing to God and so consequently not to a godly soul in comparison of those excellent divine beauties wherewith Religion adorneth the world But whereas the greatest
a vanity which I have observed in many pretenders to nobility and learning when men seek to demonstrate the one by their Coat of Arms and the Records of their family and the other by a gown or a title or their names standing in the Register of the university rather than by the accomplishments and behaviours of Gentlemen or Schollars A like vanity I doubt may be observed in many pretenders to religion some are searching Gods decretals to find their names written in the book of life when they should be studying to find Gods name written upon their hearts holiness to the Lord engraven upon their souls some are busie examining themselves by notes and marks without them when they should labour to find the marks and prints of God and his nature upon them some have their Religioâ— in their books and Authors which should be the Law of God unwritten in the Tables of the heart some glory in the bulk of their duties and in the multitude of their pompous performances and religious atchievments crying with Jehu come see here my zeal for the Lord whereas it were much more excellent if one could see their likeness to the Lord and the Characters of Divine beauty and holiness drawn upon their hearts and lives But we if we would judge rightly of our religious state must view our selves in God who is the Fountain of all goodness and holiness and the Rule of all perfection Value your selves by your souls and not by your bodies estates friends or any outward accomplishments as most men do But that is not enough if men rest there they may make an idoll of the fairest of Gods creatures even their own souls therefore value your souls themselves by what they have of God in them To study the blessed and glorious God in his word and to converse with him in his works is indeed an excellent and honourable employment but oh what a blessed study is it to view him in the communications of himself and the impressions of his grace upon our own souls All the thin and subtil speculations which the most raised Philosophers have of the essence and nature of God are a poor and low and beggarly employment and attainment in comparison of those blessed visions of God which a godly soul hath in it self when it finds it self partaker of a Divine Nature and liveing a Divine Life Oh labour to view God and his Divine perfections in your own souls in those copies and transcripts of them which his holy spirit draws upon the hearts of all godly men This is the most excellent discovery of God that any soul is capable of it is better and more desirable than that famous discovery that was made to Moses in the clift of the rock Exod. 34. Nay I should much either desire to see the reall impression of a God-like nature upon my own soul to see the Crucifying of my own pride and self-will the mortifying of the more sensual life and a Divine life springing up in my soul instead of it I would much rather desire to see my soul glorified in the image and beauty of God put upon it which is indeed a pledge yea and a part of Eternal glory than to have a vision from the Almighty or hear a voice witnessing from Heaven and saying Thou art my beloved Son in whom my soul is well pleased This that I am speaking of is a true foundation of Heaven it self in the soul a reall beginning of Happiness For Happiness Heaven it self is nothing else but a perfect conformity a cheerfull and eternal complyance of all the powers of the soul with the will of God so that as far as a godly soul is thus conformed to God and filled with his fulness so far is he glorified upon earth Sed heu quantum distamus ab illo 2. Let wisdom then be justified of her Children let the children of God those that are his genuine off-spring rise up and call him blessed in imiâ—ation of their Lord and Saviour that eldest son of God that first born amongst many brethren who rejoyced in spirit and said I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast revealed these things Luk. 10. 21. or according to the style of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again There is no greater contradiction in the world than a man pretending Religion and yet ascribing it to himself whereas pure Religion is purely of a Divine Original Besides Religion doth principally consist in the subduing of self-will in conformity to and complyance with the divine will in serving the interest of Gods glory in the world Then and not till then may a soul be truly called Religious when God becomes greatest of all to it and in it and the interest of God is so powerfully planted in it that no other interest no self-interest no creature-love no particular private end can grow by it no more than the Magicians could stand before Moses when he came in the power of God to work wonders So that Solomon saith of self-seeking Prov. 25. 27. For men to seek their own glory is not glory the like I may safely say upon that double ground that I have laid down self-Religion is not Religion How vainly and madly do men dream of their self religion carrying them to Heaven when Heaven it self is nothing else but the perfection of â—elf-denyal and Gods becoming all things to the Saints 1 Cor. 15. 28. Instead of advancing men towards Heaven there is nothing in the world that doth more directly make war against Heaven than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Siracides calls it that proud and petulant spirit of self-will that rules in the children of disobedience So that when the Holy-Ghost would describe David one of the best men to the best advantage he describes him with opposition to self and self-will 1 Sam. 13. 14. a man after Gods own heart and again Acts 13. 36. he served the will of God in his generation There have been of old a great number of Philosophical men who being raised up above the speculation of their own souls which is the logical life unto a contemplation of a Deity and being purged by a lower kind of vertue and moral goodness from the pollutions that are in this world through lust did yet ultimately settle into themselves and their own self-love They were full indeed but it was not with the fulness of God as the Apostle speaks but with a self-sufficiency the leaven of self-love lying at the bottome did make them swell with pride and self-conceit Now these men though they were free from gross external enormities yet did not attain to a true knowledge of God nor any true Religion because they did set up themselves to be their own Idols and carry such an image of themselves continually before their eyes that they had no
clear and spiritual discerning of God They did as it is storied of one of the Persian Kings enshrine themselves in a Temple of their own But what speak I of Heathen Philosophers Is there not the same unclean spirit of self-adoration to be found amongst many Christians yea and Teachers of Christianity too witness that whole brood those men who whilest they hang the grace of God upon mans free-will do rob him of his glory Some of these have impudently given a short but unsavoury answer to the Apostles questâ—on in 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who maketh you to differ from an other Ego me ipsum discerno I make my self to differ These men whilest they pretend to high attainments do discover a low and most ignoble spirit To fasten and feed upon any thing in the Creature is the part of a low and degenerate spirit on the other hand it is the greatest perfection of the Creature not to be its own not to be any thing in it self or any way distinct from the blessed God the father and fountain of light and grace Holy Paul is all along in a different strain as in 1 Cor. 15. 10. I yet not I but the grace of God which was with me I told you before what a fair and honourable character the Holy Ghost hath given of holy David a man after Gods own heart now you may also find a description of these men too in Scripture not much differing from the other in phrase but very much in sense it is the same that is given of the proud Prince of Tyrus Ezek. 28. 2. They set their heart as the heart of God But we if we do indeed partake of the Divine Nature shall not dare to take any part of the Divine Glory if we conform to Gods Image we shall not set up our own This self-glorying in the predominancy of it is utterly inconsistent with true Religion as Fire is with Water For Religion is nothing else but the shinings forth of God into the Soul the reflection of a beauty and glory which God hath put upon it Give all therefore unto God for whatsoever is kept back is sacrilegiously purloined from him Glory we in the fulness of God alone and in selfpenury and nothingness The whole of Religion is of God Do we see and discern the great things of God It is by that light that God hath set up in us according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God That love whereby we love him he first shed abroad in our hearts If our Souls be beautiful it is with his brightness the beauty and glory of essential Holiness according to that of the Apostle Heb. 12. Partakers of his holiness If we be really and truly full we receive it of his fulness according to that of the Apostle Ephes 3. 19. filled with all the fulness of God In a word if we be in any God-like dispositions like unto him it is by his spreading of his image in us and over us By all which it appears to be a thing not only wicked and unwarrantable but utterly impossible for a godly Soul to exalt himself against God for grace to advance it self against divine glory for grace is nothing else but a communication of divine glory and God is then glorified when the Soul in holy and gracious dispositions becomes like unto him How is it possible that grace should be a shadow to obscure divine glory when it self is nothing else as it comes from God but a Beam of glory and as it is found in the Creature may properly be called a reflection of it To conclude then Be ye perswaded that a man hath so much of God as he hath of Humility and Self denial and Self-nothingness and no more He is so far of God as he loves Him honours Him imitates Hâ—m and lives to Him and no further 3. By this discovery of the Original of Religion we come to understand the Original of Sin and Wickedness And here according to the method wherein I spoke of the Original of Religion I might shew you how the original of Sin from without is of the Devil that first usher'd it into the World and ceaseth not to tempt men to it continually as also of men who are his instruments and that it does in a sense spring from many occasions without But these things are more improperly said to be the causes of Sin The inward cause is the corrupt heart of man that unclean spirit that devillish nature which is indeed the worst and most pernicious Devil in the world to Man It is an old saying Homo homini Daemon One Man is a Devil to another which though it be in some sense true yet it is more proper to say Homo sibi Daemon Man is a Devil to himself taking the spirit and principle of Apostacy that rebellious nature for the Devil which indeed doth best deserve that name But yet if we enquire more strictly into the original and nature of this Monster we shall best know what to say of it and how to describe it by what we have heard of Religion Sin then to speak properly is nothing else but a degeneration from a holy state an apostacy from a holy God Religion is a participation of God and sin is a stragling off from him Therefore it is wont to be defined by Negatives a departure from God a forsaking of him a living in the World without him c. The Souls falling off from God does describe the general nature of Sâ—n but then as it sinks into it self or settles upon the World and fastens upon the Creature or any thing therein so it becomes specified and is called Pride Covetousness Ambition and by many other names All Souls are the Off-spring of God were originally formed into his image and likeness and when they express the purity and holiness of the Divine Nature in being perfect as God is perfect then are they called the Children of God But those impure Spirits that do lapse and slide from God may be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to implant themselves into a other stock by their own low and earthly lives and are no more owned for the Children of God but are of their father the Devil John 10. 44. By which you may understand the low and base original of Sin Nothing can be so vile as that which to speak properly is nothing else but a perfect falling off from glory it self By this you may also by the way take notice of the miserable condition of unholy Souls We need not call for Fire and Brimstone to paint out the wretched state of sinful Souls Sin it self is Hell and Death and Misery to the Soul as being a departure from Goodness and Holiness it self I mean from God in conjunction with whom the Happiness and Blessedness and Heaven of a Soul doth consist Avoid it therefore as you would avoid being miserable
Posterity Though men have something without them to guide them in the way of life yet it is some living principle within them that does denominate them living Men. The Scripture will abundantly inform you which is the true Circumcision Col. 2. 11. the true Sacrifice to God Psal 51. 17. And indâ—â—â—â—he Law it self is not so much to â—â—â—â—sidered as it was engraven in Tables of Stone as being written in the heart Jer. 31. 33. The Jews need not have taken up their rest in the Law considered as an outward Rule or Precept for they knew or might have known that God requireth truth in the inward parts as one of themselves a Prophet and King of their own acknowledgeth Psal 51. 6. But I doubt many Christians are also sick of the same Disease whilst they view the Gospel as an History and an external dispensation whereas the Apostle when he opposeth it to the Law seems altogether to make it an internal thing a vital form and principle seated in the minds and spirits of men 2 Cor. 3. The Law was an external Rule or Dispensation that could not give Life though it shewed the way to it Gal. 3. 21. but the Gospel in the most proper notion of it seems to be an internal impression from God a living principle whereby the Soul is enabled to express a real conformity to God himself If we consider the Gospel in the History of it and as a piece of Book-Learning it is as weak and impotent a thing as the Law was and men may be as overly and formal in the profession of this as they were of that which we see by daily sad experience But if we consider the Gospel as an efflux of Life and Power from God himself upon the Soul producing Life where-ever it comes then we have a clear distinction between the Law and the Gospel to which the Apostle seems to refer when he calls the Corinthians the Epistle of Christ not written with ink nor in Tables of Stone but with the Spirit of the living God in fleshly Tables of the Heart 2 Cor. 3 3. According to which notion of the Law and Gospel I think we may with a learned man of our own come to a good understanding of that tormented Text Jer. 30. 31. quoted by the Apostle Heb. 10. 8. This is the Covenant that I will make I will put my Law into their minds c. The Gospel doth not so much consist in verbis as in virtute a Divine Principle of Religion in the Soul is the best Gospel And so Abraham and Moses under the Law were truly Gospellers and on the other hand All carnal Christians that converse with the Gospel only as a thing without them are as truly legal and as far short of the Righteousness of God as ever any of the Jews were Thus we see that Religion is a Principle in the Souls of good Men. Shall be in him a Well of Water We shall here now take notice of the difference between the true and all counterfeit Religions Religion is that pearl of great price which few men are possessed of though all men pretend to it Laodicean-like saying they are rich and need nothing when indeed they are poor and have nothing This then shall be the test by which at present we will a little try the counterfeit pearls True Religion is an inward nature an inward and abiding principle in the minds of good men a well of water 1. Then we must exclude all things that are meerly external these are not it Religion is not something annex'd to the soul ab extra but a new nature put into it And here we shall glance at two things 1. A godly soul does not find the whole of his soul lying without him Religion does not consist in external reformations though never so many and specious A false and overly Religion may serve to tie mens hands and reduce their outward actions to a fair seemliness in the eyes of men but true Religion 's main dominion and power is over the soul and its business lies mostly in reforming and purging the heart with all the affections and motions thereof It is not a battering Ram coming from without and serving to beat down the out-works of open and visible enormities of life but enters with a secret and sweet power into the soul it self and reduces it from its rebellious temper and perswades it willingly to surrender it self and all that is in it Sin may be beaten out of the outward conversation and yet retire and hide it self in the secret places of the soul and there bear rule as perfectly by wicked loves and lusts as ever it did by prophane and notorious practices A man's hands may be tied by some external cords cast upon them from visible revenge and yet murders may lodge in the temple of his heart as murderers lodged in the Temple of old mens tongues may be tied up from the foul sin of giving fair words concerning themselves very shame may chastize them out of proud boastings and self-exaltings when in the mean time they swell in self-conceit and are not afraid to bear an unchaste and sinful love towards their own perfections and adore an image of self set up in their hearts What a fair out-side the Pharisee had himself will best describe for indeed it is one of his properties to describe himself Luke 18. 11. God I thank thee that I am not c. but if you will have a draught of his inside you may best take it from our Saviour Matth. 23. Neither doth Religion consist in external performances though never so many and seemingly spiritual Many professors of Christianity I doubt sink all their Religion into a constant course of duties and a model of performances being more strangers to the life and strength and sweetness of true Religion Those things are needful and useful and helpful yea and honourable because they have a relation and some tendency to God but they are apt to become snares and idols to superstitious minds who conceit that God is some way gratified by these and so they take up their rest in them That Religion that only varnishes and beautifies the outside tunes the Tongue to Prayer and Conference instructs and extends the Hands to Diligence and Almesdeeds that awes the Conversation into some external Righteousness oâ— Devotion is here excluded as also by the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Much less can that pass for Religion that spends it self about Forms and Opinions and Parties and many disputable points which we have seen so much of in our own Generation The Religion that runs upon modes and turns upon interests as a door turns upon its hinges is a poor narrow scant thing and may easily view it self at once all together from first to last Men may be as far from the Kingdom of Heaven in their more spiritual Forms and Orthodox Opinions as they were in their more carnal and erroneous if they take up
and wickedness a gulf is fized and they that would pass from God to sin and the devil cannot not that there shall ever be in any a real and predominant desire so to pass as I suppose I have already proved but it denotes the impossibility of the thing It is equally impossible that a godly soul should fall from God and become an hater of him fall from his love and image and take upon him the image of the devil as it was for Lâ—zarus to quit Abrahams bosome for the flames of hell the case seems to be the same the former being the most reall Heaven and the latter the truest Hell True Religion is that holy fire which being once kindled in the soul from Heaven never goes out whereof the fire of the altar was but a faint and imperfect resemblance It is as true in this respect of good men as it is of wicked men in an other their fire never goes out And here now we are presented with another great difference between true and counterfeit Religion All counterfeit Religion will fade in time though never so specious and flourishing All dew will pass away though some lye much longer than other All land-floods will fail yea the flood of Noah at length dryed up though it were of many moneths duration But this well of water which our Saviour speaks of here will never utterly fail cold Adversity cannot freeze it up scorching prosperity cannot dry it up The upper springs of uncreated grace and goodness will evermore feed those nether springs of grace and holiness in the creature Though Heaven and earth pass away yet shall the seed of God remain he that hath begun a good work will certainly perform it Eph. 1. 6. Where the grace of God hath begotten a Divine principle and spirit of true Religion in a soul there is the central force even of Heaven itself still attracting and carrying the soul in its motions thitherward untill it have lodged it in the very bosome and heart of God If any principle lower than true Religion do actuate a man it will certainly waste and be exhausted though it may carry him swiftly in a rapid motion yet not in a steady though it may carry him high yet not quite through A meteor that is exhaled from the earth by a forreign force though it may mount high in appearance and brave it in a blaze enough to be envyed by the poor twinkling stars and to be admired by ordinary spectators yet its fate is to fall down and shamefully confess its base original That Religion which men put on only for a cloak wâ—ll wear out and drop into rags if it be not presently thrown by as a garment out of fashion You have read of the seeming righteousness of Jehu founded in ambition and cruelty the piety and devotion of Joash grounded upon a good and vertuous education the zeal of Soul for the worship of God and his fat Sacrifices growing upon a root of superstition as Samuel that man of God interprets it 1 Sam. 15. 22. and you have seen the shamefull issue of all these dissemblers and the stinking snuff in which all this candle-light Religion ended very much unlike to that sun-light lustre of true and genuine goodness which shineth more and more unto the perfect day according to that elegant description which the spirit of God makes of it in the writings of Solomon whose pen hath as much adorned this great truth as his life hath blotted it Prov. 4. 18. To this purpose I might fairly alleadge the frequent testimonies which the Holy Ghost in Scripture gives concerning such hypocritical and unprincipled professors that having no root they wither away in a scorching season that they are again entangled in the pollutions of the world and overcome that like dogs they turn to their own vomit again and like Sows wallow in the mire from which they had been washed 2 Pet. 2. 20 22. together with many others of the same nature as also the prophesies that are made concerning them that that which they seemed to have shall be taken away from them Luke 8. 18. that they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest to all men 2 Tim. 3. 9. that evil men and seducers and of those self-seducers are the worst shall wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3. 13. with other places of the like nature It were easie to record many histories of many men especially great men who have speedily I had almost said disdainfully thrown off that semblance of humility meekness self-denyal justice and faithfulness which they had put on for a vizard during their probationarship for preferment the better to accomplish their selfish designs and to be possest of some base ends of their own But yet I will not deny but that a hypocrite may maintain a fair conformity to and correspondence with the letter of the law of God he may continue fair and specious to the very end of his life yea perhaps may go to his grave undiscovered either to himself or any in the world besides I believe many men have lived and dyed Pharisees have never apostatized from that righteousness which they profest but have persevered in their formality and hypocrisie to the last But yet although that counterfeit righteousness and Religion may possibly not fade away yet nevertheless being of an earthly and selfish constitution it is transitory and fading and if it were soundly assaulted and battered with persecutions and temptations no doubt would actually vanish and disappear on the other hand the promise of God is pregnant and precious Isa 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall walk and no faint Take encouragement from hence all ye that love the Lord go on in the strength of God Be the more lively by how much the more you are assured that this well of water shall spring up in you into everlasting life Make this good use of this comfortable doctrine will God indeed work in you both to will and to do why then so much the rather work out your own salvation according to the Apostle Phil. 2. 12. will the Lord God be with you will he not fail you nor forsake you till you have finished all your work why then Be strong and of good courage and do as good David inferrs and argues 1 Chron. 28. 20. Have you this hope this firm ground of hope in the promise and goodness of God why then purifie your selves as God is pure according to the Apostle 1 Joh. 3. 3. stop the mouths of those men that say the Doctrine of perseverance is prejudicial to godliness let them see and be forced to acknowledge it that the more a godly soul is assured of the infinite and unchangeable love and care of God towards him the more is he winged with love and zeal with speed mounting up thither daily where he longs to arrive They that understand the doctrine of perseverance
improved and mightily inflamed thereby I suppose I need not stay upon so popular a Theme and so acknowledged a subject therefore I will but present you with the instances of holy David in the Old Testament and gracious Paul in the New and so quit this head I need not I suppose magnifie the holy and divine frame of David's spirit by any balbutient Rhetorick of mine God himself hath given the amplest testimony and fairest character of him that I remember to have been at any time given of any man when he owns him for a man after his own heart And what a longing thirsting soul this was I need do no more to demonstrate than to turn you to some passages and professions of his own in his devout Psalms such as Psal 42. 12. 63. 1. 143. 6. Where he borrows the strongest inclmations that are to be found in the whole Creation to represent the devout ardots of his own soul As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty Land Yea he seems like one that would swoon away for very longing Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit I lift my soul unto thee I flee unto thee c. The very same temper you will find in boly Paul that chosen vessel of God if you peruse his Epistles in all which you will meet with devout and strong breathings of the same kind particularly Phil. 3. 11 12 13 14. Where he seems to be so thirsty after a state of heavenly perfection that he longs after if I mistake not the meaning of the 11. verse something that yet he knows he cannot arrive at whilst he is in this world even the resurrection of the dead or such a perfect state of purity and holiness as belongs to the children of the resurrection 5. The godly soul thirsteth no more after happiness in any creature nor rests in any worldly thing but in God alone This particular consists also of two branches the former and negative part whereof seems to me to contain in it the scope and meaning of out Saviour in these words which I am now interpreting We have already seen that every unsanctified soul is restless and creaving wavering unsatisfied inconstant to it self and its choice By reason of its natural activity it is alwaies spending it self in restless and giddy motions as we observed under the first head of this discourse but by reason of its ignorance and unacquaintedness with the one Supreme and All-sufficient good and the multiplicity of lower ends and objects is miserably distracted and doth necessarily grapple with inevitable disturbances in a continual unsteadiness putting forth it self now towards one thing anon to another courting every thing but matching with nothing like a fickle Lover that is alwaies enamoured with the last feature he saw or a greedy Merchant that being equally in love with the pleasure of being at home and the profit of being abroad can stay long no where with any content but has alwaies most mind of the place where he is not as he confesses of himself in the Poet Romae Tybur amo ventosus Tybure Romam The description that our Lord gives of the unclean spirit that is gone out of a man Matth. 12. 43. seems very aptly to agree to that unclean spirit that is in man that being departed from God its proper rest and habitation walketh thorough dry and desart places I mean empty and unsatisfying creature-enjoyments seeking rest but finding none It was an accidental affliction of believers but it is the natural and necessary affliction of every unbelieveing and wicked soul to wander up and down the world distitute afflicted tormented Sinful self is so multiform and that one root the animal life has such a world of branches that it is impossible to administer due nourishment to them all and yet they are all importunate and greedy suckers too so that he must needs have a difficult task and a painful Province that is constrained to attend upon so many so different and yet all of them so 〈◊〉 and imperious Masters But I shall lose ground by thus going backward to what I spoke to under the second head except I can make this advantage of it enforce that which I was going to speak of with the greater strengeh and clearer evidence The case standing thus with the unregenerate soul as we have seen in this short review I now say that divine grace allays the multifarious thirst of the soul after other waters filthy puddles of which it could never yet drink deep or if it drunk never so deep could not be quenched it determines the soul to one object which before was rent in pieces amongst many It do's not destroy any of the natural powers nor dry up the innate vâ—gour of the soul as I made evident under the last head but it takes it off from the chase of all inferiour ends and inadequate objects setting it upon a vehement pursuit of and causing it to spend all those its powers not less vlgorously but far more rationally and satisfactorily upon that objectum par amori the infinitely-amiable and self-sufficient God When the soul hath once met with this glorious object is once mastered with this supâ—reme good is by divint grace ampliated and enlarged it cannot with any ease stretch it self upon the creature any more that is too scant and insufficient for it Certainly the soul that understands its own original nature and capacity and once comes to view it self in God will see it self too large to be bounded by the narrow confines oâ— self or any creature and too free to be bound down and chained to any earthly object whatever The world indeed may yea and will labour to take off the soul What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved that thou art so fond of him Are not Abara and Pharpar Rivers of Damasens better than all the waters of Israel Be content here is hay and provender stay with me this nâ—ght let us dally and make merry together a little longer But these Syrenian songs are sung to a deaf ear they cannot inchant the wise and devout soul that hath her senses rightly awakened and exercised to discern between good and evil Oh no I am sick of love and sick of every thing that keeps me from my Beloved and therefore however you may go about to defile me through fraud or force through surprize or violence yet I will not prostitute my self unto you The gracious foul hath now discovered the most beautiful perfect and lovely object even him whose name is Love it self which glorious vision hath so blasted and
miserable Every thing is the product of Almighty love and goodness 2. The happiness of every creature consists in its acting agreeably to that nature that God gave it and those ends which he propounded to it and suitably to those laws which he gave them which laws were contrived with the greatest suitableness to those natures and subserviency to those ends Every creature is in its kind happy whilest it acts agreeably to that nature which the wise creator implanted in it as the Sun runs its race without ceasing and rejoyces so to do and is in some sense happy in so doing Departing from that nature it becomes miserable as the earth bringing forth briers and thorns instead of those good fruits which it was appointed to bring forth is said to be cursed Gen. 3. 17 18. 3. The happiness of the creature is higher or lower greater or lesser according as it comes nearer to God or is further off from him according as it receives more or less from him according to what communion it hath with him The life and happiness of the Sun is much lower than that of a man because it cannot enjoy such high and excellent communications from or communion with God as man doth 4. There can be no communion without likeness The Sun shines upon a stone wall as well as upon man but a stone wall ha's no communion with the Sun because it hath no eyes to see the light of it as man hath nor can receive the benign influences of its heat as the herbs do A log of wood lyeth in the water as well as the Fish but it hath no communion with the water nor receives no advantage by it as the Fish doth God is present according to his infinite essence with the Devils as well as with the Angels but they have no likeness in nature to him and so no communion with him as these have 5. God bath given a more large and excellent capacity to man than to any other of his creatures upon earth God hath endued man with reason and so made him capable of a higher life and a more excellent communion with his Maker than all the rest The rational soul of all sublunary creatures is only capable to know love serve enjoy imitate God and so to have a glorious communion with him The Sun in all its glory and brightness is not so excellent a Being as any soul of man upon this account And although man by his fall lost his actual communion with God yet be is a reasonable creature still he hath not lost his capacity of receiving influences from him and enjoying communion with him The world when it is at the darkest is yet capable of being enlightned 6. When the nature of man is by divine grace healed of its distemperedness and restored to its former rectitude to act suitably to the end for which it was made and to spend it self upon its proper object then 〈◊〉 to have a right communion with God and to be happy All ratioâ—â—â— souls are capable of holding communion with God but all do not hold communion with him but they that express the purity and holiness of the divine life that know God and live like him these are hiâ— children Mat. 5. 15. and those only do rightly and really converse with him when the spirit of God informs these rational souls and derives the strength of a divine life through them and stamps the lively impressions of Divine perfections upon them rendring our hearts will and wayes conformable to that glorious pattern that infinite good then do we enjoy a proper communion with him and are truly blessed though we are not compleatly blessed till this conformity be perfected according to what those souls are or may be capable of This is the true and proper notion of mans communion with God and relation to him which we cannot fully describe till we do more fully enjoy That soul that truly lives and feeds upon God do's taste more than it can tell and yet it can tell this that this is the most high excellent noble glorious life in the whole world This communion as also the intimateness and closeness of it are described variously in the Holy Scriptures by the similitude of members being in the body 1 Cor. 12. 27. Of branches being in the Vine Joh. 15. 1 2. By being formed according to Gods image Rom. 8. 29. Changed into his image 2 Cor. 3. 18. By Gods dwelling in the soul and the soul in him 1 Joh. 4. 16. By Christs being formed in the soul Gal. 4. 19 By the souls having Christ 1 Joh. 5. 12. By Christs supping with the soul and the soul with him Rev. 3. 20. Because nothing is more our own nor more one with us than that which we eat and drink being incorporated into us therefore is this spiritual communion between God and the godly soul oft-times in Scripture described by our eating and drinking with him Thus God was pleased to allow his people under the law when they had offered up a part of their Beasts in Sacrifice to him to sit down and feast upon the rest as a token of that familiarity and oneness that was between him and them By the like action our Saviour shadowed out the same mysterie when in the Sacrament of his supper he appointed them to sit down and eat and drink with him to intimate their feeding upon him and most close communion with him yea the state of glory which is the most perfect communion with God is thus shadowed out too Mat. 8. 11. Rev. 19. 9. And which is worth noting I think the Sacramental eating and drinking hath some reference to that most intimate communion of the Saints with God in glory our Saviour himself seems to imply as much in that speech of his Luk. 22. 30. That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom In which words he seems plainly to allude to the Sacramental eating and drinking which he had a little before instituted viz. ver 19. Which makes some to believe that that gesture is to be retained in that ordinance which is most proper and usual to express familiarity and communion and to take away that gesture is to destroy one great end of our Saviour in appointing this Supper which was to represent that familiar communion which is between himself and every believing soul I will not here examine the validity of their argument which possibly if prest home might introduce a rudeness into the worship of God under pretence of familiarity but it seems very plain that the nature of that ordinance doth shadow out the intimate communion between God and a godly soul I have already in part prevented my self and shewed you wherein the souls communion with God consists But yet to give you a more distinct knowledge of this great mysterie I shall unfold it in these three following particulars 1. A godly soul hath communion with God in his Attributes When the