〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which this Quère of his seems to refer as if he had said Having kept all God's commandements sure my Good deeds cannot only over-ballance my Evil no but they rather fill both the scales of the Divine ballance I have no Evil deeds to weigh against them what therefore can I want of the end and scope of the Divine Law which is to make men perfect seeing I have guided my whole life from my youth up by the Precepts of it To which our Saviour replies If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me Which words I can neither think to be spoken as Consilium perfectionis in the Papal sense nor yet only as a particular and special Precept but rather by way of Conviction So that the full sense and importance of our Saviours speech seems to be this viz. A mere Conformity of the Outward man to the Law of God is not sufficient to bring a man to Eternal life but the Inward man also must deeply receive in the stamp and impression of the Divine Law so as to be made like to God True Perfection is not consistent with any Terrene loves or Worldly affections This Mundane life and spirit which acts so strongly and impetuously in this lower world must be crucified The Soul must be wholly dissolved from this Earthy body which it is so deeply immerst in while it endeavours to enlarge its sorry Tabernacle upon this material Globe and by a holy abstraction from all things that pinion it to Mortality withdraw it self and retire into a Divine solitude If thou therefore wert in a state of Perfection thou wouldest be able at the first call from God to resigne up all Interest here below to quitt all claim and to dispose of thy self and all worldly enjoyments according to his pleasure without any reluctancy and come and follow me And this I think was the true Scope of our Saviours answer which proved a real Demonstration as it appears in the sequel of the Story that this confident Pharisee had not yet attained to those mortified affections which are requisite in all the Candidates of true Blessedness but only cheated his own Soul with a bare External appearance of Religion which was not truly seated in his Heart and I doubt not but many are ready upon as slight Grounds and with as much confidence to take up his Quere What lack I yet We shall therefore in the first place according to what we promised inquire into some of those false Pretences which men are apt to make to Happiness and shew in four Particulars how Religion is mistaken CHAP. II. An Account of mens Mistakes about Religion in 4 Particulars 1. A Partial obedience to some Particular Precepts The False Spirit of Religion spends it self in some Particulars is confin'd is overswayed by some prevailing Lust. Men of this spirit may by some Book-skill and a zeal about the Externals of Religion loose the sense of their own Guiltiness and of their deficiencies in the Essentials of Godliness and fansy themselves nearly related to God Where the true Spirit of Religion is it informs and actuates the whole man it will not be confin'd but will be absolute within us and not suffer any corrupt Interest to grow by it THE First is A Partial obedience to some Particular Precepts of Gods law That arrogant Pharisee that could lift up a bold face to heaven and thank God he was no Extortioner nor unjust nor guilty of any Publican-sins found it easie to perswade himself that God justified him as much as he did himself It was a vulgar Rule given by the Jewish Doctors which I fear too many live by That men should single out some one Commandement out of Gods law and therein especially exercise themselves that so they might make God their friend by that lest in others they should too much displease him Thus men are content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pay God their Decimae and Septimae of their lives too if need be so that they may without fear of sacriledge or purloining as they suppose from him enjoy all the rest to themselves But they are not willing to consecrate their whole lives to him they are afraid lest Religion should incroach too much upon them and too busily invade their own rights and liberties as their Selfish Spirit calls them There are such that it may be think themselves willing that God should have his due so be it he will also let them enjoy their own without any lett or molestation but they are very jealous lest he should incroach too much upon them and are carefull to maintain a Meum and Tuum with Heaven it self and to set bounds to God's prerogative over them lest it should swell too much and grow too mighty for them to maintain their own Priviledges under it They would fain understand themselves to be free-born under the dominion of God himself and therefore ought not to be compelled to yield obedience to any such laws of his as their own private seditious Lusts and Passions will not suffer them to give their consent unto There be such who perswade themselves they are well-affected to God and willing to obey his Commandements but yet think they must not be uncivil to the World nor so base and cowardly as not to maintain their own credit and reputation with a due revenge upon those that seem to impair it or so much forget themselves as not to comply with the guise and fashion of this world so far as it may make for their own emolument or preferment Such as these that are no fast friends to Religion can easily find some Postern-dore to slip out by into this World and while they either doe some constant homage to Heaven in the exercise and performance of some Duties of Religion or abstain from such Vices as the common opinions of men brand with infamie or can fansie themselves to be marked out with some of those Characters which they have learned from Books or Pulpit-discourses to be the Notes of God's Children and justified persons they grow big with Self-conceit and can easily find out some handsome piece of Sophistry and cunning Topick to delude themselves by in indulging some beloved Lust or other They can sometimes beat down the price of other mens religion to inhance the value of their own or it may be by a burning and fiery zeal against the Opinions and deportments of others that are not of their own Sect they may loose the sense of all their own guiltiness The Disciples themselves had almost forgotten the mild and gentle Spirit of Religion in an over-hasty heat calling for Fire down from heaven upon those whom they deemed their Master's enemies Sometimes a Partial spirit in Religion that spends it self only in some Particulars mistakes the fair complexions of Good nature for the
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL CHap. I. The First and main Principles of Religion viz. 1. That God is 2. That God is a rewarder of them that seek him Wherein is included the Great Article of the Immortality of the Soul These two Principles acknowledged by religious and serious persons in all Ages 3. That God communicates himself to mankind by Christ. The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul discoursed of in the first place and why pag. 59. Chap. II. Some Considerations preparatory to the proof of the Souls Immortality pag. 63. Chap. III. The First Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That the Soul of man is not Corporeal The gross absurdities upon the Supposition that the Soul is a Complex of fluid Atomes or that it is made up by a fortuitous Concourse of Atomes which is Epicurus his Notion concerning Body The Principles and Dogmata of the Epicurean Philosophy in opposition to the Immateriall and Incorporeall nature of the Soul asserted by Lucretius but discovered to be false and insufficient That Motion cannot arise from Body or Matter Nor can the power of Sensation arise from Matter Much less can Reason That all Humane knowledge hath not its rise from Sense The proper function of Sense and that it is never deceived An Addition of Three Considerations for the enforcing of this first Argument and further clearing the Immateriality of the Soul That there is in man a Faculty which 1. controlls Sense and 2. collects and unites all the Perceptions of our several Senses 3. That Memory and Prevision are not explicable upon the supposition of Matter and Motion pag. 68. Chap. IV. The Second Argument for the Immortality of the Soul Actions either Automatical or Spontaneous That Spontaneous and Elicite Actions evidence the distinction of the Soul from the Body Lucretius his Evasion very slight and weak That the Liberty of the Will is inconsistent with the Epicurean principles That the Conflict of Reason against the Sensitive Appetite argues a Being in us superiour to Matter pag. 85. Chap. V. The Third Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That Mathematical Notions argue the Soul to be of a true Spiritual and Immaterial Nature pag. 93. Chap. VI. The Fourth Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That those clear and stable Ideas of Truth which are in Man's Mind evince an Immortal and Immaterial Substance residing in us distinct from the Body The Soul more knowable then the Body Some passages out of Plotinus and Proclus for the further confirming of this Argument pag. 96. Chap. VII What it is that beyond the Highest and most subtile Speculations whatsoever does clear and evidence to a Good man the Immortality of his Soul That True Goodness and Vertue begets the most raised Sense of this Immortality Plotinus his excellent Discourse to this purpose pag. 101. Chap. VIII An Appendix containing an Enquiry into the Sense and Opinion of Aristotle concerning the Immortality of the Soul That according to him the Rational Soul is separable from the Body and Immortal The true meaning of his Intellectus Agens and Patiens pag. 106. Chap. IX A main Difficulty concerning the Immortality of the Soul viz. The strong Sympathy of the Soul with the Body answered An Answer to another Enquiry viz. Under what account Impressions deriv'd from the Body do fall in Morality p. 112. DISCOURSE V. OF THE EXISTENCE NATURE OF GOD. CHap. I. That the Best way to know God is by an attentive reflexion upon our own Souls God more clearly and lively pictur'd upon the Souls of Men then upon any part of the Sensible World pag 123. Chap. II. How the Contemplation of our own Souls and a right Reflexion upon the Operations thereof may lead us into the knowledge of 1. The Divine Unity and Omniscience 2. God's Omnipotence 3. The Divine Love and Goodness 4. God's Eternity 5. His Omnipresence 6. The Divine Freedome and Liberty p. 126. Chap. III. How the Consideration of those restless motions of our Wills after some Supreme and Infinite Good leads us into the knowledge of a Deity pag. 135. Chap. IV. Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes 1. That all Divine productions are the free Effluxes of Omnipotent Love and Goodness The true Notion of God's glory what it is Men very apt to mistake in this point God needs not the Happiness or Misery of his Creatures to make himself glorious by God does most glorifie himself by communicating himself we most glorifie God when we most partake of him and resemble him most pag. 140. Chap. V. A second Deduction 2. That all things are supported and govern'd by an Almighty Wisdome and Goodness An Answer to an Objection made against the Divine Providence from an unequal distribution of things here below Such quarrelling with Providence ariseth from a Paedanticall and Carnall notion of Good and Evil. pag. 144. Chap. VI. A third Deduction 3. That all true Happiness consists in a participation of God arising out of the assimilation and conformity of our Souls to him and That the most reall Misery ariseth out of the Apostasie of Souls from God No enjoyment of God without our being made like to him The Happiness and Misery of Man defin'd and stated with the Original and Foundation of both pag. 147. 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 encourage true Goodness That it does not primarily intend Punishment but only takes it up as a mean to prevent Transgression True Justice never supplants any that it self may appear glorious in their ruines How Divine Justice is most advanced pag. 151. Chap. VIII The fifth and last Deduction 5. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion The Primitive rules of God's Oeconomy in this world not the sole Results of an Absolute Will but the sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness God could not design to make us Sinfull or Miserable Of the Law of Nature embosom'd in Man's Soul how it obliges man to love and obey God and to express a Godlike spirit and life in this world All Souls the Off-spring of God but Holy Souls manifest themselves to be and are more peculiarly the Children of God pag. 154. Chap. IX An Appendix concerning the Reason of Positive Laws pag. 158. Chap. X. The Conclusion of this Treatise concerning the Existence and Nature of God shewing how our Knowledge of God comes to be so imperfect in this State while we are here in this Terrestriall Body Two waies observed by Plotinus whereby This Body does prejudice the Soul in her Operations That the better Philosophers and more contemplative Jews did not deny the Existence of all kind of Body in the other state What
which have been written of the Soul's Heraldry will not blazon it so well to us as it self will doe When we turn our own eyes in upon it it will soon tell us it 's own royal pedigree and noble extraction by those sacred Hieroglyphicks which it bears upon it self We shall endeavour to interpret and unfold some of them in our following Discourse 3. There is one thing more to be considered which may serve as a common Basis or Principle to our following Arguments and it is this Hypothesis That no Substantial and Indivisible thing ever perisheth And this Epicurus and all of his Sect must needs grant as indeed they doe and much more then it is lawful to plead for and therefore they make this one of the first Principles of their Atheistical Philosophy Ex nihilo fieri nil in nihilum nil posse reverti But we shall here be content with that sober Thesis of Plato in his Timaeus who attributes the Perpetuation of all Substances to the Benignity and Liberality of the Creatour whom he therefore brings in thus speaking to the Angels those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. You are not of your selves immortal nor indissoluble but would relapse and slide back from that Being which I have given you should I withdraw the influence of my own power from you but yet you shall hold your Immortality by a Patent of meer grace from my self But to return Plato held that the whole world howsoever it might meet with many Periodicall mutations should remain Eternally which I think our Christian Divinity doth no where deny and so Plotinus frames this general Axiom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no Substance shall ever perish And indeed if we collate all our own Observations Experience with such as the History of former times hath delivered to us we shall not find that ever any substance was quite lost but though this Proteus-like Matter may perpetually change its shape yet it will constantly appear under one Form or another what art soever we use to destroy it as it seems to have been set forth in that old Gryphe or Riddle of the Peripatetick School Aelia Laelia Crispis nec mas nec faemina nec androgyna nec casta nec meretrix nec pudica sed omnia c. as Fortunius Licetus hath expounded it Therfore it was never doubted whether ever any piece of Substance was lost till of latter times some hot-brained Peripateticks who could not bring their fiery and subtile fancies to any cool judgement began rashly to determine that all Material Forms as they are pleas'd to call them were lost For having once jumbled and crouded in a new kind of Being never anciently heard of between the parts of a Contradiction that is Matter and Spirit which they call Material Forms because they could not well tell whence these new upstarts should arise nor how to dispose of them when Matter began to shift herself into some new garb they condemn'd them to utter destruction and yet lest they should seem too rudely to controul all Sense and Reason they found out this common tale which signifies nothing that these Substantial Forms were educed ex potentia Materiae whenever Matter began to appeare in any new disguise and afterwards again returned in gremium Materiae so they thought them not quite lost But this Curiosity consisting onely of words fortuitously packt up together being too subtile for any sober judgment to lay hold upon and which they themselves could never yet tell how to define we shall as carelesly lay it aside as they boldly obtrude it upon us and take the common distinction of all Substantiall Being for granted viz. That it is either Body and so Divisible and of three Dimensions or else it is something which is not properly a Body or Matter so hath no such Dimensions as that the Parts thereof should be crouding for place and justling one with another not being all able to couch together or run one into another and this is nothing else but what is commonly called Spirit Though yet we will not be too Critical in depriving every thing which is not grosly corporeal of all kind of Extension CHAP. III. The First Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That the Soul of man is not Corporeal The gross absurdities upon the Supposition that the Soul is a Complex of fluid Atomes or that it is made up by a fortuitous Concourse of Atomes which is Epicurus his Notion concerning Body The Principles and Dogmata of the Epicurean Philosophy in opposition to the Immateriall and Incorporeal nature of the Soul asserted by Lucretius but discover'd to be false and insufficient That Motion cannot arise from Body or Matter Nor can the power of Sensation arise from Matter Much less can Reason That all Humane knowledge hath not its rise from Sense The proper function of Sense and that it is never deceived An Addition of Three Considerations for the enforcing of this first Argument and further clearing the Immateriality of the Soul That there is in man a Faculty which 1. controlls Sense and 2. collects and unites all the Perceptions of our several Senses 3. That Memory and Prevision are not explicable upon the supposition of Matter and Motion WE shall therefore now endeavour to prove That the Soul of man is something really distinct from his Body of an Indivisible nature and so cannot be divided into such Parts as should flit one from another and consequently is apt of it's own Nature to remain to Eternity and so will doe except the Decrees of Heaven should abandon it from Being And first we shall prove it ab absurdo and here doe as the Mathematicians use to doe in such kind of Demonstrations we will suppose that if the Reasonable Soul be not of such an Immaterial Nature then it must be a Body and so suppose it to be made up as all Bodies are where because the Opinions of Philosophers differ we shall only take one viz. that of Epicurus which supposeth it to be made up by a fortuitous Concourse of Atomes and in that demonstrate against all the rest for indeed herein a particular Demonstration is an Universal as it is in all Mathematical Demonstrations of this kind For if all that which is the Basis of our Reasons and Understandings which we here call the Substance of the Soul be nothing else but a meer Body and therefore be infinitely divisible as all Bodies are it will be all one in effect whatsoever notion we have of the generation or production thereof We may give it if we please finer words and use more demure smooth language about it then Epicurus did as some that lest they should speak too rudely and rustically of it by calling it Matter will name it Efflorescentia Materiae and yet lest that should not be enough adde Aristotle's Quintessence to it too they will be so trim and courtly
and more plainly declares its own high descent to us That it is able to subsist and act without the aid and assistance of this Matter which it informes And here we shall take that course that Aristotle did in his Books de Anima and first of all inquire Whether it hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some kind of Action so proper and peculiar to it self as not to depend upon the Body And this soon offers it self in the first place to us in those Elicite motions of it as the Moralists are wont to name them which though they may end in those they call Imperate acts yet have their first Emanation from nothing else but the Soul it self For this purpose we shall take notice of Two sorts of Actions which are obvious to the experience of every one that observes himself according to a double Source emanation of them which a late Philosopher hath very happily suggested to us The first are those Actions which arise up within us without any Animadversion the other are those that are consequent to it For we find frequently such Motions within our selves which first are before we take notice of them and which by their own turbulency and impetuousness force us to an Advertency as those Fiery spirits and that inflamed Blood which sometimes fly up into the head or those gross and Earthly Fumes that disturb our brains the stirring of many other Humours which beget within us Grief Melancholy Anger or Mirth or other Passions which have their rise from such Causes as we were not aware of nor gave no consent to create this trouble to us Besides all those Passions and Perceptions which are begotten within us by some externall motions which derive themselves through our Senses and fiercely knocking at the door of our Minds and Understandings force them sometimes from their deepest debates musings of some other thing to open to them and give them an audience Now as to such Motions as these are it being necessary for the preservation of our Bodies that our Souls should be acquainted with them a mans Body was so contrived and his Soul so united to it that they might have a speedy access to the Soul Indeed some ancient Philosophers thought that the Soul descending more deeply into the Body as they expresse it first begot these corporeal motions unbeknown to it self by reason of its more deep immersion which afterwards by their impetuousness excited its advertency But whatsoever truth there is in that Assertion we clearly find from the relation of our own Souls themselves that our Soul disowns them and acknowledgeth no such Motions to have been so busy by her commission neither knows what they are from whence they arise or whither they tend untill she hath duly examined them But these Corporeal motions as they seem to arise from nothing else but meerly from the Machina of the Body it self so they could not at all be sensated but by the Soul Neither indeed are all our own Corporeal actions perceived by us but only those that may serve to maintain a good correspondence intelligence between the Soul and Body and so foment cherish that Sympathy between them which is necessary for the subsistence and well-being of the whole man in this mundane state And therefore there is very little of that which is commonly done in our Body which our Souls are informed at all of The constant Circulation of Blood through all our Veins and Arteries the common motions of our Animal spirits in our Nerves the maceration of Food within our Stomachs and the distribution of Chyle and nourishment to every part that wants the relief of it the constant flux and reflux of more sedate Humours within us the dissipations of our corporeal Matter by insensible Transpiration and the accesses of new in the room of it all this we are little acquainted with by any vital energie which ariseth from the union of Soul and Body and therefore when we would acquaint our selves with the Anatomy and vital functions of our own Bodies we are fain to use the same course and method that we would to find out the same things in any other kind of Animal as if our Souls had as little to doe with any of these in our own Bodies as they have in the Bodies of any other Brute creature But on the other side we know as well that manythings that are done by us are done at the dictate and by the commission of our own Wills and therefore all such Actions as these are we know without any great store of Discoursive inquiry to attribute to their own proper causes as seeing the efflux and propagation of them We doe not by a naked speculation know our Bodies first to have need of nourishment and then by the Edict of our Wills injoyn our Spirits and Humours to put themselves into an hungry and craving posture within us by corroding the Tunicles of the Stomach but we first find our own Souls sollicited by these motions which yet we are able to gainsay and to deny those petitions which they offer up to us We know we commonly meditate and discourse of such Arguments as we our selves please we mould designs and draw up a plot of means answerable thereto according as the free vote of our own Souls determines and use our own Bodies many times notwithstanding all the reluctancies of their nature onely as our Instruments to serve the will and pleasure of our Souls All which as they evidently manifest a true Distinction between the Soul and the Body so they doe as evidently prove the Supremacy and dominion which the Soul hath over the Body Our Moralists frequently dispute what kind of government that is whereby the Soul or rather Will rules over the Sensitive Appetite which they ordinarily resolve to be Imperium politicum though I should rather say that all good men have rather a true despotical power over their Sensitive faculties and over the whole Body though they use it onely according to the laws of Reason and Discretion And therefore the Platonists and Stoicks thought the Soul of man to be absolutely freed from all the power of Astral Necessity and uncontroulable impressions arising from the subordination and mutual Sympathie and Dependance of all mundane causes which is their proper notion of Fate Neither ever durst that bold Astrologie which presumes to tell the Fortunes of all corporeal Essences attempt to enter into the secrets of man's Soul or predict the destinies thereof And indeed whatever the destinies thereof may be that are contained in the vast volume of an Infinite and Almighty Mind yet we evidently find a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a liberty of Will within our selves maugre the stubborn malice of all Second Causes And Aristole who seems to have disputed so much against that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls which his Master before him had soberly maintained does indeed but quarrel
we shall adde but this one thing further to clear the Soul's Immortality and it is indeed that which breeds a true sense of it viz. True and reall goodness Our highest speculations of the Soul may beget a sufficient conviction thereof within us but yet it is onely True Goodness and Vertue in the Souls of men that can make them both know and love believe and delight themselves in their own Immortality Though every good man is not so Logically subtile as to be able by fit mediums to demonstrate his own Immortality yet he sees it in a higher light His Soul being purged and enlightned by true Sanctity is more capable of those Divine irradiations whereby it feels it self in conjunction with God and by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks speak the Light of divine goodness mixing it self with the light of its own Reason sees more clearly not onely that it may if it please the supreme Deity of its own nature exist eternally but also that it shall doe so it knows it shall never be deserted of that free Goodness that alwaies embraceth it it knows that Almighty Love which it lives by to be stronger then death and more powerful then the grave it will not suffer those holy ones that are partakers of it to lie in hell or their Souls to see corruption and though worms may devour their flesh and putrefaction enter into those bones that fence it yet it knows that its Redeemer lives and that it shall at last see him with a pure Intellectual eye which will then be clear and bright when all that earthly dust which converse with this mortal body filled it with shall be wiped out It knows that God will never forsake his own life which he hath quickned in it he will never deny those ardent desires of a blissfull fruition of himself which the lively sense of his own Goodness hath excited within it those breathings and gaspings after an eternal participation of him are but the Energy of his own breath within us if he had had any mind to destroy it he would never have shewn it such things as he hath done he would not raise it up to such Mounts of Vision to shew it all the glory of that heavenly Canaan flowing with eternal and unbounded pleasures and then tumble it down again into that deep and darkest Abyss of Death and Non-entity Divine goodness cannot it will not be so cruel to holy souls that are such ambitious suitors for his love The more they contemplate the blissfull Effluxes of his divine love upon themselves the more they find themselves strengthned with an undaunted confidence in him and look not upon themselves in these poor bodily relations and dependences but in their eternal alliances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Arrianus sometimes speaks as the Sons of God who is the Father of Souls Souls that are able to live any where in this spacious Universe and better out of this dark and lonesome Cell of Bodily matter which is alwaies checking and clogging them in their noble motions then in it as knowing that when they leave this Body they shall then be received into everlasting habitations and converse freely and familiarly with that Source of Life and Spirit which they conversed with in this life in a poor disturbed and streightned manner It is indeed nothing else that makes men question the Immortality of their Souls so much as their own base and earthly loves which first makes them wish their Souls were not immortal and then to think they are not which Plotinus hath well observed and accordingly hath soberly pursued this argument I cannot omit a large recital of his Discourse which tends so much to disparage that flat and dull Philosophy which these later Ages have brought forth as also those heavy-spirited Christians that find so little divine life and activity in their own Souls as to imagine them to fall into such a dead sleep as soon as they leave this earthly tabernacle that they cannot be awakened again till that last Trumpet and the voice of an Archangel shall rouse them up Our Authors discourse is this Enn. 4. lib. 7. c. 10. having first premised this Principle That every Divine thing is immortall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us now consider a Soul saith he not such an one as is immerst into the Body having contracted unreasonable Concupiscence and Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to which they were wont to distinguish between the Irascible and Concupiscible faculty and other Passions but such a one as hath cast away these and as little as may be communicates with the Body such a one as this will sufficiently manifest that all Vice is unnaturall to the Soul and something acquired onely from abroad and that the best Wisdome and all other Vertues lodge in a purged Soul as being allyed to it If therefore such a Soul shall reflect upon it self how shall it not appear to it self to be of such a kind of nature as Divine and Eternall Essences are For Wisdome and true Vertue being Divine Effluxes can never enter into any unhallowed and mortall thing it must therefore needs be Divine seeing it is fill'd with a Divine nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by its kindred and consanguinity therewith Whoever therefore amongst us is such a one differs but little in his Soul from Angelicall essences and that little is the present inhabitation in the Body in which he is inferiour to them And if every man were of this raised temper or any considerable number had but such holy Souls there would be no such Infidels as would in any sort disbelieve the Soul's Immortality But now the vulgar sort of men beholding the Souls of the generality so mutilated and deform'd with Vice and Wickedness they cannot think of the Soul as of any Divine and Immortall Being though indeed they ought to judge of things as they are in their own naked essences and not with respect to that which extraessentially adheres to them which is the great prejudice of knowledge Contemplate therefore the Soul of man denuding it of all that which it self is not or let him that does this view his own Soul then he will believe it to be Immortall when he shall behold it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fixt in an Intelligible and pure nature he shall then behold his own Intellect contemplating not any Sensible thing but Eternall things with that which is Eternall that is with it self looking into the Intellectuall world being it self made all Lucid Intellectuall and shining with the Sun-beams of eternall Truth borrowed from the First Good which perpetually rayeth forth his Truth upon all Intellectuall Beings One thus qualified may seem without any arrogance to take up that saying of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farewell all earthly allies I am henceforth no mortall wight but an Immortall Angel ascending up into Divinity and reflecting upon that likeness of it which I find
seated in our Brains is more clear or muddy so the conceptions of our Minds are more distinct or disturbed To answer this difficulty it might be enough perhaps to say That the Sympathy of things is no sufficient Argument to prove the Identity of their essences by as I think all will grant yet we shall endeavour more fully to solve it And for that purpose we must take notice that though our Souls be of an Incorporeal nature as we have already demonstrated yet they are united to our Bodies not as Assisting forms or Intelligences as some have thought but in some more immediate way though we cannot tell what that is it being the great arcanum in Man's nature that which troubled Plotinus so much when he had contemplated the Immortality of it that as he speaks of himself Enn. 4. lib. 8. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But indeed to make such a Complex thing as Man is it was necessary that the Soul should be so united to the Body as to share in its passions and infirmities so far as they are void of sinfulness And as the Body alone could not perform any act of Sensation or Reason and so it self become a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so neither would the Soul be capable of providing for the necessities of the Body without some way whereby a feeling and sense of them might be conveyed to it neither could it take sufficient care of this corporeal life as nothing pertaining to it were it not sollicited to a natural compunction and compassion by the indigencies of our Bodies It cannot be a meer Mental Speculation that would be so sensibly affected with hunger or cold or other griefs that our Bodies necessarily partake of to move our Souls to take care for their relief and were there not such a commerce between our Souls and Bodies as that our Souls also might be made acquainted by a pleasurable and delightful sense of those things that most gratifie our Bodies and tend most to the support of their Crasis and temperament the Soul would be apt wholly to neglect the Body and commit it wholly to all changes and casualties Neither would it be any thing more to us then the body of a Plant or Star which we contemplate sometimes with as much contentment as we do our own bodies having as much of the Theory of the one as of the other And the relation that our Souls bear to such peculiar bodies as they inhabite is one and the same in point of notion and speculation with that which they have to any other body and therefore that which determines the Soul to this Body more then that must be some subtile vinculum that knits and unites it to it in a more Physical way which therefore Proclus sometimes calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual kind of vehicle whereby corporeal impressions are transferr'd to the Mind and the dictates and decrees of that are carried back again into the Body to act and move it Heraclitus wittily glancing at these mutual aspects and entercourses calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Responsals or Antiphons wherein each of them catcheth at the others part keeps time with it and so he tells us that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way that leads upwards and downwards between the Soul and Body whereby their affairs are made known to one another For as the Soul could not have a sufficient relation of the state and condition of our Bodies except it received some impressions from them so neither could our Souls make use of our Bodies or derive their own virtue into them as they doe without some intermediate motions For as some motions may seem to have their beginning in our Bodies or in some external mover which are not known by our Souls till their advertency be awakened by the impetuousness of them so some other motions are derived by our own Wills into our Bodies but yet in such a way as they cannot be into any other body for we cannot by the meer Magical virtue of our Wills move any thing else without our selves nor follow any such virtue by a concurrent sense of those mutations that are made by it as we doe in our own Bodies And as this Conjugal affection and sympathy between Soul and Body are thus necessary to the Being of Mankind so we may further take notice of some peculiar part within us where all this first begins which a late fagacious Philosopher hath happily observed to be in that part of the Brain from whence all those Nerves that conduct the Animal spirits up and down the Body take their first Original seeing we find all Motions that first arise in our Bodies to direct their course straight up to that as continually respecting it and there onely to be sensated and all the imperate motions of our Wills issuing forth from the same consistory Therefore the Animal spirits by reason of their constant mobility and swift motion ascending to the place of our Nerves origination move the Soul which there sits enthron'd in some mysterious way and descending at the beck of our Wills from thence move all the Muscles and joynts in such sort as they are guided and directed by the Soul And if we observe the subtile Mechanicks of our own Bodies we may easily conceive how the least motion in these Animal Spirits will by their relaxing or distending the Nerves Membranes and Muscles according to their different quantity or the celerity and quality of their motions beget all kind of motions likewise in the Organical part of our Bodies And therefore that our Souls may the better inform our Bodies they must perceive all their varieties and because they have such an immediate proximity to these Spirits therefore also all the Motions of our Souls in the highest way of Reason and Understanding are apt to stir these quick and nimble spirits alwaies attending upon them or else fix them too much And thus we may easily see that should our Souls be alwaies acting and working within us our Bodies could never take that rest and repose which is requisite for the conservation of Nature As we may easily perceive in all our studies and meditations that are most serious our Spirits are the more fix'd attending the beck of our Minds And except this knot whereby our Souls are wedded to our Bodies were unloosed that our Souls were loose from them they could not act but presently some Motion or other would be imprest upon our Bodies as every Motion in our Bodies that is extraordinary when our Nerves are distended with the Animal spirits by a continual communication of it self in these Nerves like so many intended Chords to their original moves our Souls and so though we alwaies perceive that one of them is primarily affected yet we also find the other presently by consent to be affected too And because the Soul hath all Corporeal passions and impressions thus
conveyed to it without which it could not expresse a due benevolence to that Body which peculiarly belongs to it therefore as the Motions of these Animal Spirits are more or less either disorderly and confus'd or gentle and compos'd so those Souls especially who have not by the exercise of true Vertue got the dominion over them are also more or less affected proportionably in their operations And therefore indeed to question whether the Soul that is of an Immortal nature should entertain these corporeal passions is to doubt whether God could make a Man or not and to question that which we find by experience in our selves for we find both that it doth thus and yet that the Original of these is sometimes from Bodies and sometimes again by the force of our Wills they are impress'd upon our Bodies Here by the way we may consider in a moral way what to judge of those Impressions that are derived from our Bodies to our Souls which the Stoicks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because they are repugnant to Reason or are aberrations from it but because they derive not their original from Reason but from the Body which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and are by Aristotle more agreeably to the ancient Dialect called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 material or corporeal Idea's or impressions And these we may safely reckon I think amongst our Adiaphora in Morality as being in themselves neither good nor evil as all the antient Writers have done but onely are form'd into either by that stamp that the Soul prints upon them when they come to be entertain'd into it And therefore whereas some are apt in the most severe way to censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all those Commotions and Passions that first affect our Souls they might doe well more cautelously to distinguish between such of these motions as have their origination in our Bodies and such as immediately arise from our Souls else may we not too hastily displace the antient termini and remove the land-marks of Vertue and Vice For seeing the Soul could not descend into any corporeal act as it must doe while it is more present to one body then another except it could partake of the griefs and pleasures of the Body can it be any more sinful for it to sensate this then it is for it to be united to the Body If our Soul could not know what it is to eat or drink but onely by a meer ratiocination collecting by a drie syllogisticall discourse That meats and drinks preserve the health and fabrick of the Body repairing what daily exhales from it without sensating any kind of grief in the want or refreshment in the use of them it would soon suffer the Body to languish and decay And therefore as these Bodily infirmities and passions are not evil in themselves so neither are they evil as they first affect our Souls When our Animal Spirits begot of fine and good blood gently and nimbly play up and down in our Brains and swiftly flie up and down our whole Bodies we presently find our Phansies raised with mirth and chearfulness and as when our Phansies are thus exalted we may not call this the Energy of Grace so if our Spleen or Hypochondria swelling with terrene and sluggish Vapours send up such Melancholick fumes into our heads as move us to sadness and timorousness we cannot justly call that Vice nor when the Gall does degurgitate its bitter juyce into our Liver which mingling it self with the blood begets fiery Spirits that presently fly up into our Brain and there beget impressions of Anger within us The like we may say of those Corporeal passions which are not bred first of all by any Peccant humours or distemperatures in our own bodies but are excited in us by any External objects which by those idola and images that they present to our Senses or rather those Motions they make in them may presently raise such commotions in our Spirits For our Body maintains not onely a conspiration and consent of all its own parts but also it bears a like relation to other mundane bodies with which it is conversant as being a part of the whole Universe But when our Soul once mov'd by the undisciplin'd petulancy of our Animal spirits shall foment and cherish that Irrational Grief Fear Anger Love or any other such like Passions contrary to the dictates of Reason it then sets the stamp of sinfulness upon them It is the consent of our own Wills that by brooding of them brings forth those hatefull Serpents For though our Souls be espoused to these Earthly Bodies and cannot but in some measure sympathize with them yet hath the Soul a true dominion of its own acts It is not the meer passion if we take it in a Physicall sense but rather some inordinate action of our own Wills that entertain it and these passions cannot force our Wills but we may be able to chastise and allay all the inordinacy of them by the power of our Wills and Reasons and therefore God hath not made us under the necessity of sin by making us men subject to such infirmities as these are which are meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Philosopher hath well called them the blossomings and shootings forth of bodily life within us which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Humanity And if I mistake not our Divinity is wont sometimes to acknowledge some such thing in our Saviour himself who was in all things made like to us our sinfulness excepted He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs as the Prophet Esay speaks of him and when he was in bodily agonies and horrours the powerfull assaults thereof upon his Soul moved him to petition his Father that if it were possible that bitter Cup might pass from him and the sense of death so much afflicted him that it bred in him the sad griefs which S. Peter expresseth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2. the pangs or throes of death and that fear that extorted a desire to be freed from it as it is insinuated by that in Heb. 5. 7. he was delivered from what he feared for so the words being nothing else but an Hebraism are to be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we are wont to call this the language and dictate of Nature which lawfully endeavours to preserve it self though presently an higher principle must bring all these under a subjection to God and a free submission to his good pleasure as it was with our Saviour who moderated all these passions by a ready resignment of himself and his own Will up to the Will of God and though his Humanity crav'd for ease and relaxation yet that Divine Nature that was within him would not have it with any repugnancy to the supreme Will of God A DISCOURSE Concerning THE EXISTENCE AND NATURE OF GOD Agapetus ad Justinianum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. T. Cicero l. 1. De Legibus
we have a distinct Notion of the most Perfect Mind and Understanding we own our deficiency therein And as that Idea of Understanding which we have within us points not out to us This or That Particular but something which is neither This nor That but Totall Understanding so neither will any elevation of it serve every way to fit and answer that Idea And therefore when we find that we cannot attain to Science but by a Discursive deduction of one thing from another that our knowledge is confined and is not fully adequate and commensurate to the largest Spheare of Being it not running quite through it nor filling the whole area of it or that our knowledge is Chronical and successive and cannot grasp all things at once but works by intervals and runs out into Division and Multiplicity we know all this is from want of Reason and Understanding and that a Pure and Simple Mind and Intellect is free from all these restraints and imperfections and therefore can be no less then Infinite As this Idea which we have of it in our own Souls will not suffer us to rest in any conception thereof which represents it less then Infinite so neither will it suffer us to conceive of it any otherwise then as One Simple Being and could we multiply Understandings into never so vast a number yet should we be again collecting and knitting them up together in some Universal one So that if we rightly reflect upon our own Minds and the Method of their Energies we shall find them to be so framed as not to admit of any other then One Infinite source of all that Reason and Understanding which themselves partake of in which they live move and have their Being And therefore in the old Metaphysical Theology an Originall and Uncreated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Unity is made the Fountain of all Particularities and Numbers which have their Existence from the Efflux of its Almighty power And that is the next thing which our own Understandings will instruct us in concerning God viz. His Eternall Power For as we find a Will and Power within our selves to execute the Results of our own Reason and Judgment so far as we are not hindred by some more potent Cause so indeed we know it must be a mighty inward strength and force that must enable our Understandings to their proper functions and that Life Energy and Activity can never be separated from a Power of Understanding The more unbodied any thing is the more unbounded also is it in its Effective power Body and Matter being the most sluggish inert and unwieldy thing that may be having no power from it self nor over it self and therefore the Purest Mind must also needs be the most Almighty Life and Spirit and as it comprehends all things and sums them up together in its Infinite knowledge so it must also comprehend them all in its own life and power Besides when we review our own Immortal Souls and their dependency upon some Almighty Mind we know that we neither did nor could produce our selves and withall know that all that Power which lies within the compass of our selves will serve for no other purpose then to apply severall praeexistent things one to another from whence all Generations and Mutations arise which are nothing else but the Events of different applications and complications of Bodies that were existent before and therefore that which produced that Substantiall Life and Mind by which we know our selves must be something much more Mighty then we are and can be no less indeed then Omnipotent and must also be the First architect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all other Beings and the perpetuall Supporter of them We may also know from the same Principles That an Almighty Love every way commensurate to that most Perfect Being eternally rests in it which is as strong as that is Infinite and as full of Life and Vigour as that is of Perfection And because it finds no Beauty nor Loveliness but onely in that and the issues thereof therefore it never does nor can fasten upon any thing else And therefore the Divinity alwaies enjoies it self and its own Infinite perfections seeing it is that Eternall and stable Sun of goodness that neither rises nor sets is neither eclipsed nor can receive any encrease of light and beauty Hence the Divine Love is never attended with those turbulent passions perturbations or wrestlings within it self of Fear Desire Grief Anger or any such like whereby our Love is wont to explicate and unfold its affection towards its Object But as the Divine Love is perpetually most infinitely ardent and potent so it is alwaies calm and serene unchangeable having no such ebbings and flowings no such diversity of stations and retrogradations as that Love hath in us which ariseth from the weakness of our Understandings that doe not present things to us alwaies in the same Orient lustre and beauty neither we nor any other mundane thing all which are in a perpetual flux are alwaies the same Besides though our Love may sometimes transport us and violently rend us from our selves and from all Self-enjoyment yet the more forcible it is by so much the more it will be apt to torment us while it cannot centre it self in that which it so strongly endeavours to attract to it and when it possesseth most yet is it alwaies hungry and craving as Plotinus hath well express'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may alwaies be filling it self but like a leaking vessel it will be alwaies emptying it self again Whereas the Infinite ardour of the Divine Love arising from the unbounded perfection of the Divine Being alwaies rests satisfied within it self and so may rather be defin'd by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is wrapt up and rests in the same Centrall Unity in which it first begins And therefore I think some men of later times have much mistaken the nature of the Divine Love in imagining that Love is to be attributed to God as all other Passions are rather secundùm effectum then affectum whereas S. John who was well acquainted with this noble Spirit of Love when he defin'd God by it and calls him LOVE meant not to signifie a bare nothing known by some Effects but that which was infinitely such as it seems to be And we might well spare our labour when we so industriously endeavour to find something in God that might produce the Effects of some other Passions in us which look rather like the Brats of Hell and Darkness then the lovely offspring of Heaven When we reflect upon all this which signifies some Perfect Essence as a Mind Wisdome Understanding Omnipotency Goodness and the like we can find no such thing as Time or Place or any Corporeall or Finite properties which arise indeed not ex plenitudine but ex inopia entitatis we may also know God to be Eternall and
Right and Equity by wholsome Laws and annexing Punishments as a mean to prevent transgression and not to manifest Severity The proper scope of Justice seems to be nothing else but the preserving and maintaining of that which is Just and Right the scope of that Justice which is in any Righteous Law is properly to provide for a righteous execution of that which is just and fit to be without intending punishment for to intend that properly and directly might rather seem Cruelty then Justice and therefore Justice takes not up Punishment but onely for a security of performance of Righteous Laws viz. either for the amendment of the person transgressing or a due example to others to keep them off from transgression For I would here suppose a Good and Righteous man who in some desolate place of the World should have the command of a 100 more and himself be Supreme under no command He prescribes Laws to this company makes it death for any one to take away another's life But now one proves a Murtherer kills one of his fellows afterwards repents heartily and is like to prove usefull among the rest of his fellows they all are so heartily affected one to another that there is no danger upon sparing this Penitent's life that any one of them should be encouraged to commit the like evil The Case being thus stated it will not seem difficult to conclude that the Justice of this Righteous and Good Commander would spare this poor Penitent for his Justice would have preserved that life which is lost and seeing there is nothing further that it can obtain in taking away this it will save this which may be saved for it affects not any blood and when it destroies it is out of necessity to take away a destructive person and to give example which in the Case stated falls not out Again Justice is the Justice of Goodness and so cannot delight to punish it aimes at nothing more then the maintaining and promoting the Laws of Goodness and hath alwaies some good end before it and therefore would never punish except some further good were in view True Justice never supplants any that it self might appear more glorious in their ruines for this would be to make Justice love something better then Righteousness and to advance and magnifie it self in something which is not it self but rather an aberration from it self and therefore God himself so earnestly contends with the Jews about the Equity of his own waies with frequent asseverations that his Justice is thirsty after no man's blood but rather that Sinners would repent turn from their evil waies and live And then Justice is most advanced when the contents of it are fulfill'd and though it does not and will not acquit the guilty without Repentance yet the design of it is to encourage Innocency and promote true Goodness CHAP. VIII The Fifth and last Deduction 5. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion The Primitive rules of God's Oeconomy in this world not the sole Results of an Absolute Will but the sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness God could not design to make us Sinfull or Miserable Of the Law of Nature embosom'd in Man's Soul how it obliges man to love and obey God and to express a Godlike spirit and life in this world All Souls the Off-spring of God but Holy Souls manifest themselves to be and are more peculiarly the Children of God THE former Deduction leads me to another a-kin to it which shall be my last and it is that which Tully intimates in his De legibus viz. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion God himself from whom all Law takes its rise and emanation is not Exlex and without all Law nor in a sober sense above it Neither are the Primitive rules of his Oeconomy in this world the sole Results of an Absolute will but the Sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness I cannot think God to be so unbounded in his Legislative power that he can make any thing Law both for his own Dispensations and our Observance that we may sometime imagine We cannot say indeed that God was absolutely determin'd from some Law within himself to make us but I think we may safely say when he had once determin'd to make us he could neither make us sinfull seeing he had no Idea nor shadow of Evil within himself nor lap us those dreadfull fates within our Natures or set them over us that might arcanâ inspiratione as some are pleas'd to phrase it secretly work our ruine and silently carry us on making use of our own naturall infirmity to eternall misery Neither could he design to make his creatures miserable that so he might shew himself Just. These are rather the by-waies of Cruell and Ambitious men that seek their own advantage in the mischiefs of other men and contrive their own Rise by their Ruines this is not Divine Justice but the Cruelty of degenerated men But as the Divinity could propound nothing to it self in the making of the World but the Communication of its own Love and Goodness so it can never swerve from the same Scope and End in the dispensation of it self to it Neither did God so boundlesly enlarge the appetite of Souls after some All-sufficient Good that so they might be the more unspeakably tortur'd in the missing of it but that they might more certainly return to the Originall of their Beings And such busie-working Essences as the Souls of men are could neither be made as dull and sensless of true Happiness as Stocks and Stones are neither could they contain the whole summe and perfection of it within themselves therefore they must also be inform'd with such Principles as might conduct them back again to Him from whom they first came God does not make Creatures for the meer sport of his Almighty arm to raise and ruine and toss up and down at meer pleasure No that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good pleasure of that Will that made them is the same still it changes not though we may change and make our selves uncapable of partaking the blissfull fruits and effects of it And so we come to consider that Law embosom'd in the Souls of men which ties them again to their Creatour and this is called The Law of Nature which indeed is nothing else but a Paraphrase or Comment upon the Nature of God as it copies forth it self in the Soul of Man Because God is the First Mind and the First Good propagating an Imitation of himself in such Immortall Natures as the Souls of Men are therefore ought the Soul to renounce all mortall and mundane things and preserve its Affections chast and pure for God himself
but with alacritie and chearfulness And they prophesied that is as Jonath the Targumist expounds it they praised God As if he had said Their Prophesies were Songs and Praises to God uttered by the Holy Ghost Thus he Now as this Divine Spirit thus acted free and chearful Souls so the Evil Spirit actuated sad Melancholy Minds as we heard before and as we may see in the Example of Saul And indeed that Evil Spirit which is said to have possessed him seems to be nothing else originally but Anguish and grief of Mind however wrought upon by some tempting insinuations of an Evil Spirit And this sometime instigated him to prophesie after the fashion of such Melancholy furie 1 Sam. 18. 10. And it came to pass on the morrow that the Evil Spirit from God came upon Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house which Jonathan renders by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insanivit in medio domûs or as Kimchi expounds the Paraphrast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 locutus est verba stultitiae So also R. Solom upon the place expounds it to the same purpose So that according to the strain of all the Jewish Scholiasts by this Evil Spirit of Saul nothing else is here meant but a Melancholy kind of madness which made him prophesie or speak distractedly and inconsistently To these we may adde R. L. B. Gersom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He spake in the midst of the house very confusedly by reason of that Evil Spirit Now as this Evil Spirit was indeed fundamentally as I said nothing else but a Soure and Distracted Temper of Mind arising from the Terrene dregs of Melancholy Grief and Malice whereby Saul was at that time vexed so the proper Cure of it was the Harmony and Melody of David's Musick which was therefore made use of to compose his Mind and to allay these turbulent passions And that was the reason as I hope by this time it appears why this Musick was so frequently used viz. to compose the Animal part that all kind of Perturbations being dispell'd and a fine gentle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tranquillitie ushered in the Soul might be the better disposed for the Divine breathings of the Prophetical Spirit which enter not at randome into any sort of Men. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo hath well express'd it upon this occasion These Divine breathings enter only into those Minds that were fitly disposed for them by Moral and Acquisite qualifications CHAP. IX Of the Sons or Disciples of the Prophets An Account of several Schools of Prophetical Education as at Naioth in Rama at Jerusalem Bethel Jericho Gilgal c. Several passages in the Historical Books of Scripture pertinent to this Argument explained AND therefore we find also frequently such Passages in Scripture as strongly insinuate to us that anciently many were trained so up in a way of School-discipline that they might become Candidati Prophetiae and were as Probationers to these Degrees which none but God himself conferr'd upon them Yet while they heard others prophesie there was sometime an afflatus upon them also their Souls as it were sympathizing like Unisons in Musick with the Souls of those which were touched by the Spirit And this seems to be the meaning of that story 1 Sam. 19. where all Saul's messengers sent to Naioth in Rama to apprehend David and at last he himself are said to fall a prophesying For it is probable that the Prophesies there spoken of were Anthems divinely dictated or Doxologies with such elegant strains of Devotion and Phansie as might also excite and stir up the Spirits of the Auditors As often we find that any admirable Discourses in which there is a chearful and free flowing forth of a rich Phansie in an intelligible and yet extraordinary way are apt to beget a symbolizing qualitie of Mind in a stander-by And this notion we now drive is clearly suggested by the Jewish writers who tell us that this Naioth in Rama was indeed a School of Prophetical education and so the Targum expounds the word Naioth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domus doctrinae i. e. Prophetiae And R. Levi B. G. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Masters say That there was a School for the Prophets near the City of Ramah to which the Prophets congregated And to the like purpose R. Solomon And it 's further insinuated that Samuel was the President of this School or Colledge as disciplining those young Scholars and training them up to those preparatory qualifications which might more dispose them for Prophesie and also prophesying to them in sacred Hymns or otherwise whereby their Spirits might receive some Tincture of a like kind For so we find it verse 20. And when they saw the company of the Prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as appointed over them the Spirit of God was upon the Messengers of Saul and they also prophesied Where the Chaldee Paraphrast translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or prophesying by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praising God with sacred Hymns and Hallelujahs according to the common strain of the Prophetical degree which was called Spiritus Sanctus And so R. Kimchi and R. Levi B. G. here ascribe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Holy Spirit Among these Prophets it 's said Samuel stood as appointed over them that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He stood as a Teacher or Master over them as the Chaldee Paraphrast reads it But R. Levi B. G. strains a little higher and perhaps too high 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He derived forth from himself of his own Prophetical Spirit by way of Emanation upon them Though this kind of language be very suitable to the Notions of those Masters who will needs perswade us that almost all the Prophets prophesied by virtue of some influence raying forth from the Spirit of some other Prophet into them And Moses himself they make the Common conduit through whom all Prophetical influence was conveighed to the rest of the Prophets A conceit I think a little too nice and subtile to be understood But to return Upon this Ground we have suggested these Disciples of the Prophets are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sons of the Prophets and these are they which are meant 1 Sam. 10. 5. the place we named before in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Company of the Prophets that is as the Targum renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coetus Scribarum a Company of Scribes for so these young Scholars were anciently called or if you please rather in Kimchi's language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A company of Scribes that is Scholars For the Scholars of the Wise men were called Scribes For they were the Scholars of the greater Prophets and these Scholars were called the Sons of the Prophets Now the greater Prophets which lived in that time from Eli to David were Samuel Gad Nathan Asaph Heman and Jeduthun And thus we must understand the meaning of that Question ver 12. Who is their
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
contentment without it self and so it wanders up and down from one creature to another and thus becomes distracted by a multiplicity of Objects And while it cannot find some One and Onely object upon which as being perfectly adequate to its capacities it may wholly bestow it self while it is tossed with restless and vehement motions of Desire and Love through a world of painted beauties false glozing Excellencies courting all but matching nowhere violently hurried every whither but finding nowhere objectum par amori while it converseth onely with these pinching Particularities here below and is not yet acquainted with the Universal Goodness it is certainly far from true Rest and Satisfaction from a fixt composed temper of spirit but being distracted by multiplicity of Objects and Ends there can never be any firm and stable peace or friendship at home amongst all its Powers and Faculties nor can there be a firm amity and friendship abroad betwixt wicked men themselves as Aristotle in his Ethicks does conclude because all Vice is so Multiform and inconsistent a thing and so there can be no true concatenation of Affections and Ends between them Whereas in all Good men Vertue and Goodness is one Form and Soul to them all that unites them together and there is the One Simple and Uniform Good that guides and governs them all They are not as a Ship tossed in the tumultuous Ocean of this world without any Compass at all to stear by but they direct their course by the certain guidance of the One Last End as the true Pole-starr of all their motion But while the Soul lies benighted in a thick Ignorance as it is with wicked men and beholds not some Stable and Eternal Good to move toward though it may by the strength of that Principle of Activeness within it self spend it self perpetually with swift and giddy motions yet it will be always contesting with secret disturbances and cannot act but with many reluctancies as not finding an object equall to the force and strength of its vast affections to act upon By what hath been said may appear the vast difference between the ways of Sin and of Holinesse Inward distractions and disturbances tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil But to every man that worketh good glory honour and peace inward composednesse and tranquillity of spirit pure and divine joys farr excelling all sensual pleasures in a word true Contentment of spirit and full satisfaction in God whom the pious Soul loves above all things and longs still after a nearer enjoyment of him I shall conclude this Particular with what Plotinus concludes his Book That the life of holy and divine men is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life not touch't with these vanishing delights of Time but a flight of the Soul alone to God alone CHAP. VII The Fifth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God and to a comfortable confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation Fearfulness Consternation of Mind and frightfull passions are consequent upon Sin and Guilt These together with the most dismall deportments of Trembling and Amazement are agreeable to the nature of the Devil who delights to be serv'd in this manner by his worshippers Love Joy and Hope are most agreeable to the nature of God and most pleasing to him The Right apprehensions of God are such as are apt to beget Love to God Delight and Confidence in him A true Christian is more for a solid and well-grounded Peace then for high raptures and feelings of joy How a Christian should endeavour the Assurance of his Salvation That he should not importunately expect or desire some Extraordinary manifestations of God to him but rather look after the manifestation of the life of God within him the foundation or beginning of Heaven and Salvation in his own Soul That Self-resignation and the subduing of our own Wills are greatly available to obtain Assurance The vanity and absurdity of that Opinion viz. That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to God's will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the subject of Eternal wrath in Hell if it should so please God THe Fifth Property or Effect whereby True Religion discovers its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God as also to a well-grounded Hope and comfortable Confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation The truly religious Soul maintains an humble and sweet familiarity with God and with great alacrity of spirit without any Consternation and Servility of spirit is enabled to look upon the Glory and Majesty of the most High But Sin and Wickedness is pregnant with fearfulness and horrour That Trembling and Consternation of Mind which possesses wicked men is nothing else but a brat of darkness an Empusa begotten in corrupt and irreligious Hearts While men walk in darkness and are of the night as the Apostle speaks then it is onely that they are vext with those ugly and gastly Mormos that terrify and torment them But when once the Day breaks and true Religion opens her self upon the Soul like the Eye-lids of the Morning then all those shadows and frightfull Apparitions flee away As all Light and Love and Joy descend from above from the Father of lights so all Darkness and Fearfulness Despair are from below they arise from corrupt and earthly minds are like those gross Vapors arising from this Earthly globe that not being able to get up towards heaven spread themselves about the circumference of that Body where they were first begotten infesting it with darkness and generating into Thunder and Lightning Clouds and Tempests But the higher a Christian ascends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above this dark dungeon of the Body the more that Religion prevails within him the more then shall he find himself as it were in a clear heaven in a Region that is calm and serene and the more will those black and dark affections of Fear and Despair vanish away and those clear and bright affections of Love and Joy and Hope break forth in their strength and lustre The Devil who is the Prince of darkness and the great Tyrant delights to be served with gastly affections and the most dismal deportments of trembling and astonishment as having nothing at all of amiableness or excellency in him to commend himself to his worshippers Slavery and servility that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Longinus truly calls it is the badge and livery of the Devil's religion hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathens perform'd with much trembling and horror But God who is the supreme Goodness and Essentiall both Love and Loveliness takes most pleasure in those sweet and delightfull affections of the Soul viz. Love Joy and Hope which are most
It were perhaps a vain curiosity to inquire whether the number of Evil spirits exceed the number of Men but this is too too certain that we never want the secret and latent attendance of them The Devil is not onely a word or a name made to affright and scare timorous men with neither are we then onely in danger of him when he presents himself to us in some Corporeal form it is nothing else but a superstitious weakness to be afraid of him onely then when he appears embodyed and to neglect that unseen and insensible influence which his continual converse with us as an unbodyed spirit may have upon us Those Evil spirits are not yet cast out of the world into outer darkness though it be prepared for them the bottomless pit hath not yet shut its mouth upon them They fell from God not so much by a Local descent as by a Mental apostasy and dissimilitude to God and they are now in libera custodia having all this habitable world for their Rendezvous and are stiled by the Apostle Spiritual wickednesses in high places Wheresoever there are any in a disposition to sin against God wheresoever there are any capable of a Temptation or Diabolical impression here and there are they A man needs not dig into the chambers of death or search among the shadows of darknesse to find them he needs not goe down into hell to seek them or use any Magical charms to raise them up from thence No those wicked and impure spirits are always wandring up and down amongst us seeking whom they may devour As there is a Good Spirit conversant in the world inviting and alluring men to Vertue and Goodness so there is an Evil spirit perpetually tempting and inticeing men to Sin and Vice Uncloathed and unbodyed natures may converse with us by secret illapses while we are not aware of them I doubt not but there are many more Divine impressions made upon the Minds of men both Good and Bad from the Good Spirit of God then are ordinarily observed there are many soft and silent impulses gentle motions like our Saviour's putting in his hand by the hole of the door as it is in the Canticles solliciting and exciting men to Religion and Holiness which they many times regard not and take little notice of There are such secret messages often brought from Heaven to the Souls of men by an unknown and unseen hand as the Psalmist speaks Once yea twice have I heard it that power belongeth unto God And as there are such divine irradiations sliding into the Souls of men from God so there are no question many frequent suggestions to the Fancies and Imaginations of men arising from the Evil Spirit and a watchfull observer of his own heart and life shall often hear the voice of Wisdome the voice of Folly speaking to him he that hath his eyes opened may see both the visions of God falling upon him and discern the false and foolish fires of Satan that would draw away his mind from God This is our unhappiness that the Devil is so near us and we see him not he is conversant with us and yet we are not aware of him Those are the most desperate designs likeliest to take effect that are carried on by an unseen and unappearing enemy and if we will provide our selves against the Devil who never misseth any opportunity that lies in his way to tempt us nor is ever failing in any plot we must then have our Senses exercised to discern both good and evil we must get our Minds awakened with clear and evident Principles of Light we must get our Judgments and Consciences well informed with sober and practical Truth such as tends to make us most like to God and to reconcile our natures more perfectly to Divine goodness Then shall we know and discover that Apostate Spirit in all his Stratagems whereby he seeks to bereave us of our happiness we shall know him as well when he cloaths himself like an Angel of light as when he appears in his own nakedness and deformity It is observed by some That God never suffered the Devil to assume any humane shape but with some Character whereby his Body might be distinguished from the true Body of a man and surely the Devil cannot so exactly counterfeit an Angel of light but that by a discerning mind he may be distinguished from him as they say a Beggar can never act a Prince so cunningly but that his behaviour sometime sliding into the course way and principles of his Education will betray the meannesse of his pedigree to one of a true noble extraction A bare Imitation will always fall short of the Copy from whence it is taken and though Sin and Errour may take up the mantle of Truth and cloath themselves with it yet he that is inwardly acquainted with Truth and an ingenuous lover and pursuer of it will be able to find out the Imposture he will be able to see through the vail into the naked deformity of them CHAP. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil consider'd as a Spirit of Apostasy and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not onely the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdome and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defy him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life 2. WHen we say The Devil is continually busy with us I mean not onely some Apostate spirit as one particular Being but that spirit of Apostasy which is lodged in all mens natures and this may seem particularly to be aimed at in this place if we observe the context as the Scripture speaks of Christ not onely as a Particular person but as a Divine Principle in holy Souls Indeed the Devil is not onely the name of one particular thing but a nature He is not so much one particular Being designed to torment Wicked men in the world to come as a hellish and diabolical nature seated in the minds of men He is not onely one Apostate Spirit fallen down from heaven out of the lap of Blessedness but also a Spirit of Apostasy a
Worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it Our assimilation to God and conformity to him instates us in a firm possession of true Happiness which is nothing else but God himself who is all Being and Blessedness and our dissimilitude to God and Apostasy from him involves us in our own Miserie and sets us at the greatest enmity to what our unsatiable desires most of all crave for which is the enjoyment of True and Satisfying Good Sins are those fiery Snakes which will eternally lash and torment all damned spirits Every mans Hell arises from the bottom of his own Soul as those stinking Mists and tempestuous Exhalations that infest the Earth have their first original from the Earth it self Those streams of fire and brimstone ordained for the torment of all damned spirits are rather the exsudations of their own filthy and corrupt nature then any external thing Hell is not so much induced as educed out of mens filthy Lusts and Passions I will not here dispute what external Appendixes there may be of Heaven or Hell but methinks I no where find a more Graphical description of the true Properties and Operations of them though under other names then in those Characters of the Flesh and Spirit in Galat. 5. ver 19 20 21 22 23. Eternal death is begotten and brought forth out of the wombe of lust and is little else but Sin consummated and in its full growth as S. James intimates chap. 1. Would wicked men dwell a little more at home and descend into the bottome of their own Hearts they should soon find Hell opening her mouth wide upon them and those secret fires of inward fury and displeasure breaking out upon them which might fully inform them of the estate of true Misery as being a short anticipation of it But in this life wicked men for the most part elude their own Misery for a time and seek to avoid the dreadfull sentence of their own Consciences by a tergiversation and flying from themselves into a converse with other things Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere else they would soon find their own home too hot for them But while mens Minds are perpetually rambling all the world over in a pursuit of worldly designes they are unacquainted with the affairs of their own Souls and know not how deeply a Self-converse and reflection upon their own prodigious deformities would pierce their Souls with anguish how vastly would they swell with Fury Rage Horrour Consternation and whatsoever is contrary to that ineffable Light and Love and Peace which is in Heaven in natures fully reconciled and united to true Goodness As true Goodness cannot borrow Beauty from any external thing to recommend it self to the Minds and Affections of Good men seeing it self is the very Idea and true life of all Beauty and Perfection the source of Bliss and Peace to all that partake of her so neither can Sin and Wickedness to an enlightned Soul appear more Ugly loathsome and hatefull in any other shape then its own CHAP. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some External impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peaceful sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual FRom these words Resist the Devil we may take notice of the Warfare of a Christian life of that Active life and valour which Good men express in this world A true Christian spirit is masculine and generous it is no such poor sluggish pusillanimous thing as some men fansie it to be but active and noble We fight not saith the Apostle against flesh and bloud but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places True Religion does not consist in a mere Passive capacity in a sluggish kind of doing nothing that so God himself might doe all but it consists in life power within therefore it is called by the Apostle The spirit of power of love of a sound mind it 's called the law of the spirit of life strongly enabling Good men against the law of Sin and Death True Wisdome as the Wise man hath well stiled it is the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty neither can any defiled thing enter into it it goes in and out in the strength of God himself and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly Every thing as it partakes more of God and comes nearer to him so it becomes more active and lively as making the nearer approaches to the Fountain of life and virtue A Good man doth not only then move when there is some powerfull impression and impulse upon him but he hath a Spring of perpetual motion within When God restores men to a new and divine life he doth not make them like so many dead Instruments stringing and fitting them which yet are able to yield no sound of themselves but he puts a living Harmony within them That is but a Mechanical religion which moves no longer then some External weights and Impulses are upon it whether those be I think I may safely say from some Worldly thing or from God himself while he acts upon men from without them and not from within them It is not a Melancholy kind of sitting still and sloathfull waiting that speaks men enlivened by the Spirit and power of God It is not Religion to stifle and smother those Active powers and principles which are within us or to dry up the Fountain of inward life and virtue How say some amongst us That there is no resurrection from the dead no spirit or life within but all our motions in Religion are merely from some assisting Form without Good men do not walk up and down the world merely like Ghosts and Shadows or like dead Bodies assumed by some Spirit which are taken up and laid down again by him at his pleasure But they are indeed living men by a real participation from him who is indeed a quickning Spirit Were our Religion
their Neighbour in things holy and divine unquestionably just and good yet to make some compensation for their being deficient in things strictly and necessarily required and primarily pleasing to God and to excuse themselves they would express a more then ordinary diligence and zeal in some easie and little things as all the most specious observances of Formal Christians are and not worthy to be named with those great Instances of the Power of Godliness such as Hearty and Universal Obedience Entire Self-resignation a being crucified to the world plucking out of the right eye and cutting off of the right hand Mortification of the more dear and beloved Sins and the closer tendencies and inclinations to Sin and Vanity and the like This is a short character of the Pharisaick and conceited Righteousness and in our Author 's plain discovering the thinness and slightness thereof and free reproving of these false Religionists it appears that the same Nobleness of Mind and Spirit was in him which was also in Christ Jesus who never express'd himself with so much vehemency and smartness as when he was to reprove the Pharisees in his days those Patterns of Formal Christians in all ages For there is nothing more grievous to the sincerely-religious Soul then Affectation and Canting in Religion empty though specious shews of Sanctity great pretendings to Spirituality and higher degrees of Grace when to the free-spirited and discerning Christian it clearly appears that such Boasters are but low and weak things unskillful and unexperienced in the word and way of Righteousness and manifestly short of being plain Moral men and that they are Sensual having not the Spirit nor bringing forth those lovely and well-relish'd fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 5. 22. but on the contrary the corrupt fruits of the Flesh grow out of their Hearts and the works of the Flesh there mentioned are manifested in them So far are they from being crucified and not alive to the world and the world to them so far are they from having crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts that they do * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mind and earnestly affect favour and relish the things of the Flesh and of the Earth aspiring as much after power and greatness as self-seeking and self-pleasing as great lovers of themselves loving the world and the things in the world making hast to be rich thirsting still after more of this world pursuing worldly advantages and interests with as much craft and policy as much sollicitude and eagerness with as unsatisfied desires as those doe whom they call Worldly and Carnal So of old the Gnosticks call'd all others but themselves Carnal and Animal men they only were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Irenaeus l. 1. tells us whereas in truth none were more Sensual more unspiritual then they who by their unevangelical lives were the great spots and blemishes of the Christian profession But to let these alone and to return to the former with whom our Author had to doe in both these Treatises and in the 2 3 and 4. chapters of his seventh Treatise I shall add this word of faithful Admonition Be not deceived God is not mocked God will not be put off with empty pretences and Pharisaick appearances how glorious and precious soever in the eyes of men God will not be flattered with goodly praises nor satisfied with words and notions when the Life and Practice is a real contradiction to them God will not be satisfied with a specious Form of Godliness when men under this Form are Lovers of themselves covetous proud high-minded fierce lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and are manifestly under the power of these and the like Spiritual if not also Fleshly wickednesses For the Power of sin within can it seems easily agree and consist with the Form of Godliness without but two such contrary Powers as the Power of Godliness and the Power of Sin two such contrary Kingdoms as the Kingdom of the Spirit and the Kingdom of the Flesh which is made up of many petty and lesser Principalities of various Lusts and Pleasures warring sometimes amongst themselves but alwaies confederate in warring against the Soul these so contrary Powers and Kingdoms cannot stand together nor be established in one Soul Be wise now therefore and be ye instructed O ye sanctimonious Pharisees ye blind leaders of the blind and know the things that belong unto your peace for the day of the Lord will come that shall burn as an oven when all those fine coverings wherewith men thought to hide their ungodlike dispositions shall be torn from them and cast into the Fire and in this day shall even these weak and beggerly Elements melt with a fervent heat and for Hypocrites all their paint shall then drop off and their deformity shall appear in this day all affected modes of Religion shall be rendred despicable and all disguises and artificial dresses whereby false Christians thought to hide their crookednesses shall be pluck'd off and all things shall appear as they are Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth he will judge of men by other measures and rules then they used here whereby they deceived themselves and others God is for Reality and Truth He desires Truth in the inward parts his delight is in sincere and single minds It will then appear That he that walks uprightly walks surely and That he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Prov. 10. 1 John 2. If what the Author out of great Charity to the Souls of men has observed concerning these things were seriously considered and lai'd to heart Christianity would then recover its reputation and appear in its own primitive lustre and native loveliness such as shined forth in the lives of those First and Best Christians who were Christians in good earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and were distinguished from all other men in excelling and out-shining them in whatsoever things were true venerable just pure lovely and of good report Then would the true Power of Godliness manifest it self which signifies infinitely More then a Power to dispute with heat and vehemency about some Opinions or to discourse volubly about some matters in Religion and in such Forms of words as are taking with the weak and unskillful More then a power to pray without a Form of words for these and the like may be and frequently are done by the formal and unspiritual Christian More then a Power to deny themselves in some things that are easie to part with and do not much cross their inclinations their self-will their corrupt designs and interests nor prejudice their dear and more beloved lusts and pleasures their profitable and advantageous Sins and More then a power to observe some lesser and easier Commands or to perform an outward obedience arising
out of slavish Fear void of inward Life and Love and a Complacency in the Law of God of which temper our Author discourses at large For concerning such cheap and little strictnesses as these it may be enquired What doe you more then others Do not even Publicans and Pharisees the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what excellent and extraordinary thing doe you what hard or difficult thing do you perform such as may deserve to be thought a worthy Instance and real Manifestation of the Power of Godliness except such things are to be accounted hard or extraordinary which are common to the real and to the formal Christian and are performable by unregenerate and natural men and are no peculiar Characters of Regeneration No these and the like performances by which such Religionists would set off themselves are but poor and inconsiderable things if compared with the mighty acts and noble atchievements of the more excellent though less ostentatious Christians who through Faith in the Goodness and Power of God have been enabled to doe all things through Christ knowing both how to abound and how to be abased c. Phil. 4. enabled to overcome the World without them and the Love of the World within them enabled to overcome themselves and for a man to rule his own Spirit is a greater instance of power and valour then to take a City as Solomon judgeth Prov. 16. enabled to resist the powers of darkness and to quit themselves like men and good Souldiers of Jesus Christ giving many signal overthrows to those Lusts that war against their Souls and to the mightiest and strongest of them the Sons of Anak and by engaging in the hardest Services of this Spiritual warfare wherein the Pharisaick boasters dare not follow them they shew that there is a Spirit of power in them and that they can doe more then others These are some of the Exploits of strong and healthful Christians and for the encouraging of them in these Conflicts which shall end in glorious Conquests and joyous Triumphs the Author hath in the Tenth and last Discourse suggested what is worthy our Consideration But I must not forget that there remains something to be observed concerning some other Treatises and having been so large in the last Observation which was not unnecessary the world abounding ever having abounded with spiritual Pharisees I shall be shorter in the rest And now to proceed to the next which is of Atheism This Discourse being but Preparatory to the ensuing Tracts is short yet I would mind the Reader that what is more briefly handled here may be supplied and further clear'd out of the Fifth Discourse viz. Of the Existence and Nature of God of which if the former part seem more Speculative Subtile and Metaphysical yet the Latter and Greater part containing several Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes is less obscure and more Practical as it clearly directs us to the best though not much observed way of glorifying God and being made happy and blessed by a Participation and Resemblance of him as it plainly directs a man to such Apprehensions of God as are apt and powerful to beget in him the Noblest and dearest Love to God the sweetest Delight and the most peaceful Confidence in him One thing more I would observe to the Reader concerning the Discourse Of Atheism and the same I would desire to be observed also concerning the next that large Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul especially of the former part thereof and it is shortly this That the Author in these Treatises pursues his discourse with a particular reflexion on the Dogmata and Notions of Epicurus and his followers especially that great admirer of him Lucretius whose Principles are here particularly examined and refuted These were the men whose Opinions our Author had to combat with He lived not to see Atheism so closely and craftily insinuated nor lived he to see Sadduceism and Epicurism so boldly owned and industriously propagated as they have been of late by some who being heartily desirous That there were no God no Providence no Reward nor Punishment after this life take upon them to deride the Notion of Spirit or Incorporeal Substance the Existence of Separate Souls and the Life to come and by infusing into mens Minds Opinions contrary to these Fundamental Principles of Religion they have done that which manifestly tends to the overthrow of all Religion the destruction of Morality and Vertuous living the debauching of Mankind the consuming and eating out of any good Principle left in the Conscience which doth testifie for God and Goodness and against Sin and Wickedness and to the defacing and expunging of the Law written in mens hearts and so the holy Apostle judges of the Epicurean Notions and discourses a taste of which he gives in that passage 1 Cor. 15. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die and then ther 's an End of all no other life or state and he expresseth his judgment concerning the evil and dangerousness of these doctrines and their teachers partly in a Verse out of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil communications corrupt good manners and in what he subjoins v. 34. besides many other passages in this Chapter in opposition to the doctrine of the Sadducees and Epicureans and to the same purpose he speaks in 2. Tim. 2. 16 17 18. concerning those that denied the Doctrine of the Resurrection or any Future State and the Life to come The sum and substance of the Apostles judgment concerning these Epicurean principles is plainly this That these Principles properly and powerfully tend to the corrupting of mens Minds and Lives to the advancement of Irreligion and Immorality in the world That they are no benigne Principles to Piety and a Good life 'T is true that some of the more wary and considerate modern Epicureans may express some care to live inoffensively and to keep out of danger and to maintain a reputation in the world as to their converse with others and herein they mind their worldly interests and the advantages of this present life the only life which they have in their eye they may also express a care in avoiding what is prejudicial to health and a long life in this world But all this is short of a true and noble Love of Goodness and if in these men there be any appearance of what is Good and praise-worthy they would have been really better if they had been of other Principles and had believed in their Hearts That there is a Providence a Future state and Life to come and had lived agreeably to the Truths of the Christian Philosophy which do more ennoble and accomplish and every way better a man then the Principles of the Epicurean Sect. But to return We have before observed That our Author in these Two Treatises pursued his design in opposition to the Master-Notions and chief Principles of Epicurus
throughly acquainted with him knew well That as there was in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as'twas said of Solomon a largeness and vastness of Heart and Understanding so there was also in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free ingenuous noble Spirit most abhorrent of what was sordid and unworthy and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lxx. translate that Hebrew is the genuine product of Religion in that Soul where it is suffer'd to rule and as S. James speaks of Patience to have her perfect work The Style in this Tract may seem more rais'd and sublime then in the other which might be perhaps from the Nature and quality of the subject matter apt to heighten expressions but yet in this as in the other Tracts it is free from the Vanity of Affectation which a Mind truly ennobled by Religion cannot stoop to as counting it a Pedantick business and a certain argument of a Poorness and Weakness of Spirit in the either Writer or Speaker But if in this Tract the Style seem more magnificent yet in the Tenth and Last Discourse viz. Of a Christian's Conflicts and Conquests it is most familiar The Matter of it is very Useful and Practical for as it more fully and clearly acquaints a Christian with the more dangerous and unseen Methods of Satan's activity concerning which the Notions and Conceptions of many men are discovered here to be very short and imperfect so it also acquaints him with such Principles as are available to beget in him the greatest Courage Spirit and Resolution against the day of battel chasing away all lazy faintheartedness and despair of Victory This for the Matter The Style is as I said most familiar This Discourse was deliver'd in publick at Huntingdon where one of Queen's College is every year on March 25. to preach a Sermon against Witchcraft Diabolical Contracts c. I shall onely adde this That when he preach'd in lesser Country-Auditories particularly at Achurch near Oundle in Northamptonshire the place of his Nativity as it was his care to preach upon arguments of most practical concernment so was it also his Desire and Endeavour to accommodate his Expressions to ordinary vulgar Capacities being studious to be understood and not to be ignorantly wondred at by amuzing the People either with high unnecessary Speculations or with hard Words and vain Ostentations of Scholastick Learning the low design of some that by such arts would gain a poor respect to themselves for such and no better is all that stupid respect which is not founded upon Knowledg and Judgment He was studious I say there to speak unto men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Edification and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was significant and easie to be understood as the Apostle doth phrase it and to express his Mind in a way suitable to the apprehensions of Popular Auditories And as for the Discourses now published they also were delivered being College-Exercises in a way not less suitable to that Auditory and therefore it may not be thought strange if sometimes they seem for Matter and Style more remote from vulgar capacities Yet even in these Discourses what is most Practical is more easily intelligible by every honest-hearted Christian. And indeed that the whole might be made more familiar and easie and more accommodate to the use of any such I thought it would be very expedient as to cast the Discourses into Chapters so before every Chapter to propose to the Readers view the full Scope Sense and Strength of the principal Matters contained therein I could willingly have spared such a labour the greater when busied about the Notions and Conceptions of another and not our own if I had not conceived it to be greatly helpfull and beneficial to some Readers besides another advantage to them hereby viz. That they may the more easily find out and select any such particular Matters in these Discourses as they shall think most fit or desireable for their perusal Thus have I given the Reader some account of what seem'd fit to be observ'd concerning these Ten Discourses which now present themselves to his free and candid Judgment And now if in the reading of these Tracts enrich'd with Arguments of great variety there should occur any Passage wherein either He or I may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it need not be a matter of wonder for what Book besides that Book of Books the Bible has not something in it that speaks the Author Man It would not have displeased our Author in his life-time to have been thought less then Infallible He was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was no fond Self-admirer nor was he desirous that others should have his person his opinion and judgment in admiration he was far from the humour of Magisterial dictating to others not ambitious to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi as were and are the old the modern Pharisees nor of the number of those who are inwardly transported and tickled when others applaud their judgment and receive their Dictates with the greatest veneration and respect but very peevish and sowre disturb'd and out of order when any shall express themselves dissatisfied and otherwise minded or goe about modestly to discover their mistakes No he was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of Truth and of Peace and Charity He loved an ingenuous and sober Freedom of Spirit the generous Berean-like temper and practice agreeable to the * Apostle's prudent and faithful advice of proving all things and holding fast that which is good But to return It s possible that some Passages in these Tracts which seem dubious may upon a patient considering of them if the Reader be unprejudic'd one of a clear Mind Heart gain his assent and what upon the first reading seems obscure and less grateful may upon another view and further thoughts clear up and be thought worthy of all acceptation It is not with the fair Representations and Pictures of the Mind as with other Pictures these of the Mind shew best the nearer they are viewed and the longer the Intellectual Eye dwells upon them There is only one thing more which I ought not to forget to mind the Reader of and it is shortly this That he would please to remember that the now-published Tracts are Posthumous works and then affording that charity candour and fair respect which is commonly allowed to such works of Worthy men I nothing doubt but he will judge them too good to have been buried in obscurity although its likely if the Author himself had revis'd them in his life-time with an intent to present them to publick view they would have received from his happy hand some further polishing and enlargements He could have easily obliged the world with other Discourses of as valuable importance if he had liv'd and been so minded But it pleas'd the only-wise God in whose hand our breath is to call for him home to the Spirits of just
meant by Zoroaster's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What kind of knowledge of God cannot be attain'd to in this life What meant by Flesh and Blood 1 Cor. 15. pag. 162. DISCOURSE VI. OF PROPHESIE CHap. I. That Prophesie is the way whereby Revealed Truth is dispensed and conveighed to us Man's Mind capable of conversing and being acquainted as well with Revealed or Positive Truth as with Naturall Truth Truths of Natural inscription may be excited in us and cleared to us by means of Propheticall Influence That the Scripture frequently accommodates it self to vulgar apprehension and speaks of things in the greatest way of condescension pag. 169. Chap. II. That the Prophetical Spirit did not alwaies manifest it self with the same clearness and evidence The Gradual difference of Divine illumination between Moses the Prophets and the Hagiographi A general survey of the Nature of Prophesie properly so called Of the joint impressions and operations of the Understanding and Phansie in Prophesie Of the four degrees of Prophesie The difference between a Vision and a Dream pag. 176. Chap. III. How the Prophetical Dreams did differ from all other kinds of Dreams recorded in Scripture This further illustrated out of several passages of Philo Judaeus pertinent to this purpose pag. 183. Ch. IV. A large account of the Difference between the true Prophetical Spirit and Enthusiastical impostures That the Pseudo-Prophetical Spirit is seated only in the Imaginative Powers and Faculties inferior to reason That Plato and other Wise men had a very low opinion of this Spirit and of the Gift of Divination and of Consulting the Oracles That the True Prophetical Spirit seats it self as well in the Rational Powers as in the Sensitive and that it never alienates the Mind but informs and enlightens it This further cleared by several Testimonies from Gentile and Christian Writers of old An Account of those Fears and Consternatioons which often seized upon the Prophets How the Prophets perceived when the Prophetical influx seized upon them The different Evidence Energy of the True false Prophetical Spirit p. 190. Chap. V. An Enquiry concerning the Immediate Efficient that represented the Prophetical Visions to the Phansie of the Prophet That these Representations were made in the Prophet's Phansie by some Angel This cleared by several passages out of the Jewish Monuments and by Testimonies of Scripture pag. 210. Chap. VI. The Second Enquiry What the meaning of those Actions is that are frequently attributed to the Prophets whether they were Real or only Imaginary and Scenical What Actions of the Prophets were only Imaginary and performed upon the Stage of Phansie What we are to think of several Actions and res gestae recorded of Hosea Jeremie Ezekiel in their Prophesies p. 220. Chap. VII Of that Degree of Divine inspiration properly call'd Ruach hakkodesh i. e. The Holy Spirit The Nature of it described out of Jewish Antiquities Wherein this Spiritus Sanctus differ'd from Prophesie strictly so call'd and from the Spirit of Holiness in purified Souls What Books of the Old Testament were ascribed by the Jews to Ruach hakkodesh Of the Urim and Thummim pag. 229. Chap. VIII Of the Dispositions antecedent and preparatory to Prophesie That the Qualifications which did fit a man for the Prophetical Spirit were such as these viz. Inward Piety True Wisdome a Pacate and Serene temper of Mind and a due chearfulness of Spirit in opposition to Vitiousness Mental crazedness and inconsistency unsubdued Passions black Melancholy and dull Sadness This illustrated by several Instances in Scripture That Musick was greatly advantageous to the Prophets and Holy men of God c. What is meant by Saul's Evil Spirit pag. 240. Chap. IX Of the Sons or Disciples of the Prophets An Account of several Schools of Prophetical Education as at Naioth in Rama at Jerusalem Jericho Gilgal c. Several passages in the Historical Books of Scripture pertinent to this Argument explained pag. 252. Chap. X. Of Bath Kol i. e. Filia Vocis That it succeeded in the room of Prophesie That it was by the Jews counted the Lowest degree of Revelation What places in the New Testament are to be understood of it pag. 257. Chap. XI Of the Highest Degree of Divine Inspiration viz. the Mosaical Four Differences between the Divine Revelations made to Moses and to the rest of the Prophets How the Doctrine of men Prophetically inspired is to approve it self by Miracles or by it's Reasonableness The Sympathy and Agreeableness between an Holy Mind and Divine Truth pag. 261. Chap. XII When the Prophetical Spirit ceased in the Jewish Church The Cessation of Prophesie noted as a famous Epocha by the Jews The restoring of the Prophetical Spirit by Christ. Some passages to this purpose in the New Testament explained When the Prophetical Spirit ceased in the Christian Church That it did not continue long proved by several Testimonies of the Antient Writers pag. 267. Chap. XIII Some Rules and Observations concerning Prophetical Writ in general pag. 272. DISCOURSE VII OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS Legal Evangelical CHap. I. The Introduction shewing What it is to have a right Knowledge of Divine Truth and What it is that is either Available or Prejudicial to the true Christian Knowledge and Life pag. 285. Chap. II. An Enquiry into that Jewish Notion of a Legal Righteousness which is opposed by S. Paul That their notion of it was such as this viz. That the Law externally dispensed to them though it were as a Dead letter merely without them and conjoined with the power of their own Free-will was sufficient to procure them Acceptance with God and to acquire Merit enough to purchase Eternal Life Perfection and Happiness That this their Notion had these two Grounds First An Opinion of their own Self-sufficiency and that their Free-will was so absolute and perfect as that they needed not that God should doe any thing for them but only furnish them with some Laws to exercise this Innate power about That they asserted such a Freedom of Will as might be to them a Foundation of Merit pag. 288. Chap. III. The Second ground of the Jewish Notion of a Legal Righteousness viz. That the Law delivered to them on Mount Sinai was a sufficient Dispensation from God and all that needed to be done by him to bring them to Perfection and Happiness and That the Scope of their Law was nothing but to afford them several ways and means of Merit The Opinion of the Jewish Writers concerning Merit and the Reward due to the Works of the Law Their distinguishing of men in order to Merit and Demerit into three sorts viz. Perfectly righteous Perfectly wicked and a middle sort betwixt these The Mercenary and Low Spirit of the Jewish Religion An Account of what the Cabbalists held in this Point of Legal Righteousness pag. 297. 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
being content to enjoy himself except he may enjoy God too and himself in God How he denyes himself for God To deny a mans self is not to deny Right Reason for that were to deny God in stead of denying himself for God Self-love the only Principle that acts wicked men The happy privileges of a Soul united to God pag. 385. Chap. III. 3. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Properties c. of which this is one 1. Religion enlarges all the Faculties of the Soul and begets a true Ingenuity Liberty and Amplitude the most Free and Generous Spirit in the Minds of Good men The nearer any Being comes to God the more large and free the further is slides from God the more streightened Sin is the sinking of mans Soul from God into sensual Selfishness An account when the most Generous freedom of the Soul is to be taken in its just proportions How Mechanical and Formal Christians make an Art of Religion set it such bounds as may not exceed the scant Measure of their Principles and then fit their own Notions as so many Examples to it A Good man finds not his Religion without him but as a living Principle within him God's Immutable and Eternal Goodness the Unchangeable Rule of his Will Pecvish Self-will'd and Imperious men shape out such Notions of God as are agreeable to this Pattern of themselves The Truly Religious have better apprehensions of God pag. 392. Chap. IV. The Second Property discovering the Nobleness of Religion viz. That it restores man to a just power and dominion over himself enables him to overcome his Self-will and Passions Of Self-will and the many Evils that flow from it That Religion does nowhere discover its power and prowess so much as in subduing this dangerous and potent Enemy The Highest and Noblest Victories are those over our Self-will and Passions Of Self-denial and the having power over our Wills the Happiness and the Privileges of such a State How that Magnanimity and Puissance which Religion begets in Holy Souls differs from and excells that Gallantry and Puissance which the great Nimrods of this world boast of pag. 397. Chap. V. The Third Property or Effect discovering the Nobleness of Religion viz. That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End viz. The Glory of God and his own becoming like unto God Low and Particular Ends and Interests both debase and streighten a mans Spirit The Universal Highest and Last End both ennobles and enlarges it A man is such as the End is he aims at The great power the End hath to mold and fashion man into its likeness Religion obliges a man not to seek himself nor to drive a trade for himself but to seek the Glory of God to live wholy to him and guides him steddily and uniformly to the One Chief Good and Last End Men are prone to flatter themselves with a pretended aiming at the Glory of God A more full and distinct explication of what is meant by a mans directing all his actions to the Glory of God What it is truly and really to glorifie God God's seeking his Glory in respect of us is the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us Our seeking the Glory of God is our endeavouring to partake more of God and to resemble him as much as we can in true Holiness and every Divine Vertue That we are not nicely to distinguish between the Glory of God and our own Salvation That Salvation is nothing else for the main but a true Participation of the Divine Nature To love God above our selves is not to love him above the Salvation of our Souls but above our particular Beings and above our sinfull affections c. The Difference between Things that are Good relatively and those that are Good absolutely and Essentially That in our conformity to these God is most glorified and we are made most Happy pag. 403. Chap. VI. The Fourth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it begets the greatest Serenity and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the purest and most satisfying Joy and Pleasure to every holy Soul God as being that Uniform chief Good and the One last End does attract and fix the Soul Wicked men distracted through a Multiplicity of Objects and Ends. How the restless Appetite of our Wills after some Supreme Good leads to the knowledge as of a Deity so of the Unity of a Deity How the Joys and Delights of Good men differ from and far excell those of the Wicked The Constancy and Tranquillity of the Spirits of Good men in reference to External troubles All Perturbations of the Mind arise from an Inward rather then an Outward Cause The Stoicks Method for attaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and true rest examined and the Insufficiency of it discovered A further Illustration of what has been said concerning the Peacefull and Happy State of Good men from the contrary State of the Wicked pag. 412. Chap. VII The Fifth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God and to a comfortable confidence concerning the Love of God towards it and its own Salvation Fearfulness Consternation of Mind and frightfull passions are consequent upon Sin and Guilt These together with the most dismall deportments of Trembling and amazement are agreeable to the nature of the Devil who delights to be serv'd in this manner by his worshippers Love Joy and Hope are most agreeable to the nature of God and most pleasing to him The Right apprehensions of God are such as are apt to beget Love to God Delight and Confidence in him A true Christian is more for a solid and well-grounded Peace then for high raptures and feelings of joy How a Christian should endeavour the Assurance of his Salvation That he should not importunately expect or desire some extraordinary manifestations of God to him but rather look after the manifestation of the life of God within him the foundation or beginning of Heaven and Salvation in his own Soul That Self-resignation and the subduing of our own Wills are greatly available to obtain Assurance The vanity and absurdity of that Opinion viz. That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to God's will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the subject of Eternal wrath in Hell if it should so please God pag. 423. Chap. VIII The Sixth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it Spiritualizes Material things and carries up the Souls of Good men from Sensible and Earthly things to things Intellectual and Divine There are lesser and fuller representations of God in the Creatures To converse with God in the Creation and to pass out of the Sensible World into the Intellectual is most effectually taught by Religion Wicked men converse not with God as shining out in the Creatures they
converse with them in a Sensual and Unspiritual manner Religion does spiritualize the Creation to Good men it teaches them to look at any Perfections or Excellencies in themselves and others not so much as Theirs or That others but as so many Beams flowing from One and the Same Fountain of Light to love them all in God and God in all the Universal Goodness in a Particular Being A Good man enjoys and delights in whatsoever Good he sees otherwhere as if it were his own he does not fondly love and esteem either himself or others The Divine temper and strain of the antient Philosophy pag. 429. Chap. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence pag. 435. Chap. X. 4. The Excellencie of Religion in regard of its Progress as it is perpetually carrying on the Soul towards Perfection Every Nature hath its proper Centre which it hastens to Sin and Wickedness is within the attractive power of Hell and hastens thither Grace and Holiness is within the Central force of Heaven and moves thither 'T is not the Speculation of Heaven as a thing to come that satisfies the desires of Religious Souls but the reall Possession of it even in this life Men are apt to seek after Assurance of Heaven as a thing to come rather then after Heaven it self and the inward possession of it here How the Assurance of Heaven rises from the growth of Holiness and the powerfull Progress of Religion in our Souls That we are not hastily to believe that we are Christ's or that Christ is in us That the Works which Christ does in holy Souls testify of him and best evidence Christ's spiritual appearance in them pag. 439. Chap. XI 5. The Excellency of Religion in regard of its Term and End viz. Perfect Blessedness How unable we are in this state to comprehend and describe the Full and Perfect state of Happiness and Glory to come The more Godlike a Christian is the better may he understand that State Holiness and Happiness not two distinct things but two several Notions of one and the same thing Heaven cannot so well be defined by any thing without us as by something within us The great nearness and affinity between Sin and Hell The Conclusion of this Treatise containing a serious Exhortation to a diligent minding of Religion with a Discovery of the Vanity of those Pretenses which keep men off from minding Religion pag. 443. DISCOURSE X. OF A CHRISTIANS CONFLICTS with CONQUESTS over SATAN CHap. I. The Introduction Summarily treating of the perpetual Enmity between God the Principle of Good and the Principle of Evil the Devil as also between Whatsoever is from God and that which is from the Devil That Wicked men by destroying what there is from God within them and devesting themselves of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness and transforming themselves into the Diabolical image fit themselves for correspondence and converse with the Devil The Fears and Horrors which infest both the Apostate Spirits and Wicked men The weakness of the Devil's kingdom Christ's success against it pag. 455. Chap. II. The First observable That the Devil is continually busie with us The Devil consider'd under a double notion 1. As an Apostate Spirit which fell from God The great danger of the Devils activity not only when he presents himself in some corporeal shape but when he is unseen and appears not The weakness and folly of those who are afraid of him only when he appears embodyed That the Good Spirit of God is active for the Good of Souls How regardless men are of the gentle motions of the Divine Spirit and how unwatchfull and secure under the Suggestions of the Evil Spirit How we may discover the Devil in his Stratagems and under his several disguises and appearances pag. 458. Chap. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil considered as a Spirit of Apostasie and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not only the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdom and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defie him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life pag. 462. Chap. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some external impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peacefull sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual pag. 469. Chap. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory
to all those that resist the Devil This grounded upon 1. The Weakness of the Devil and Sin considered in themselves 2. God's powerfull assisting all faithfull Christians in this warfare The Devil may allure and tempt but cannot prevaile except men consent and yield to his suggestions The Devil's strength lies in mens treachery and falseness to their own Souls Sin is strong because men oppose it weakly The Error of the Manichees about a Principium mali defended by men in their lives and practices Of God's readiness to assist Christians in their Spiritual Conflicts his Compassionate regards and the more special respects of his Providence towards them in such occasions The Conclusion discovering the Evil and Horridness of Magick Diabolical Contracts c. pag. 474. A DISCOURSE Concerning The true WAY or METHOD of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE Psal. 3. 10. The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdome a good Understanding have all they that doe his Commandments John 7. 17. If any man will doe his Will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Clem. Alexandr Strom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A PRAEFATORY DISCOURSE CONCERNING The true Way or Method of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE Section I. That Divine things are to be understood rather by a Spiritual Sensation then a Verbal Description or meer Speculation Sin and Wickedness prejudicial to True Knowledge That Purity of Heart and Life as also an Ingenuous Freedome of Judgment are the best Grounds and Preparations for the Entertainment of Truth Sect. II. An Objection against the Method of Knowing laid down in the former Section answered That Men generally notwithstanding their Apostasie are furnished with the Radical Principles of True Knowledge Men want not so much Means of knowing what they ought to doe as Wills to doe what they know Practical Knowledge differs from all other Knowledge and excells it Sect. III. Men may be consider'd in a Fourfold capacity in order to the perception of Divine things That the Best and most excellent Knowledge of Divine things belongs onely to the true and sober Christian and That it is but in its infancy while he is in this Earthly Body SECT I. IT hath been long since well observed That every Art Science hath some certain Principles upon which the whole Frame and Body of it must depend and he that will fully acquaint himself with the Mysteries thereof must come furnisht with some Praecognita or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may speak in the language of the Stoicks Were I indeed to define Divinity I should rather call it a Divine life then a Divine science it being something rather to be understood by a Spiritual sensation then by any Verbal description as all things of Sense Life are best known by Sentient and Vital faculties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Philosopher hath well observed Every thing is best known by that which bears a just resemblance and analogie with it and therefore the Scripture is wont to set forth a Good life as the Prolepsis and Fundamental principle of Divine Science Wisdome hath built her an house and hewen out her seven pillars But the fear of the Lord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of wisdome the Foundation of the whole fabrick We shall therefore as a Prolegomenon or Preface to what we shall afterward discourse upon the Heads of Divinity speake something of this True Method of Knowing which is not so much by Notions as Actions as Religion it self consists not so much in Words as Things They are not alwaies the best skill'd in Divinity that are the most studied in those Pandects which it is sometimes digested into or that have erected the greatest Monopolies of Art and Science He that is most Practical in Divine things hath the purest and sincerest Knowledge of them and not he that is most Dogmatical Divinity indeed is a true Efflux from the Eternal light which like the Sun-beams does not only enlighten but heat and enliven and therefore our Saviour hath in his Beatitudes connext Purity of heart with the Beatifical Vision And as the Eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be Sun-like and hath the form and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it so neither can the Soul of man behold God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be Godlike hath God formed in it and be made partaker of the Divine Nature And the Apostle S. Paul when he would lay open the right way of attaining to Divine Truth he saith that Knowledge puffeth up but it is Love that edifieth The knowledge of Divinity that appears in Systems and Models is but a poor wan light but the powerful energy of Divine knowledge displaies it self in purified Souls here we shall finde the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the antient Philosophy speaks the land of Truth To seek our Divinity meerly in Books and Writings is to seek the living among the dead we doe but in vain seek God many times in these where his Truth too often is not so much enshrin'd as entomb'd no intrate quaere Deum seek for God within thine own soul he is best discern'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus phraseth it by an Intellectual touch of him we must see with our eyes and hear with our ears and our hands must handle the word of life that I may express it in S. John's words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Soul it self hath its sense as well as the Body and therefore David when he would teach us how to know what the Divine Goodness is calls not for Speculation but Sensation Tast and see how good the Lord is That is not the best truest knowledge of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of the Brain but that which is kindled within us by an heavenly warmth in our Hearts As in the natural Body it is the Heart that sends up good Blood and warm Spirits into the Head whereby it is best enabled to its several functions so that which enables us to know and understand aright in the things of God must be a living principle of Holiness within us When the Tree of Knowledge is not planted by the Tree of Life and sucks not up sap from thence it may be as well fruitful with evil as with good and bring forth bitter fruit as well as sweet If we would indeed have our Knowledge thrive and flourish we must water the tender plants of it with Holiness When Zoroaster's Scholars asked him what they should doe to get winged Souls such as might soar aloft in the bright beams of Divine Truth he bids them bathe themselves in the waters of Life they asking what they were he tells them the four Cardinal Vertues which are the four Rivers of Paradise It is but a thin aiery knowledge that is got by meer Speculation which is usher'd in by Syllogisms and
Demonstrations but that which springs forth from true Goodness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen speaks it brings such a Divine light into the Soul as is more clear and convincing then any Demonstration The reason why notwithstanding all our acute reasons and subtile disputes Truth prevails no more in the world is we so often disjoyn Truth and true Goodness which in themselves can never be disunited they grow both from the same Root and live in one another We may like those in Plato's deep pit with their faces bended downwards converse with Sounds and Shadows but not with the Life and Substance of Truth while our Souls remain defiled with any vice or lusts These are the black Lethe-lake which drench the Soules of men he that wants true Vertue in heavn's Logick is blind and cannot see afar off Those filthy mists that arise from impure and terrene minds like an Atmospheare perpetually encompass them that they cannot see that Sun of Divine Truth that shines about them but never shines into any unpurged Souls the darkness comprehends it not the foolish man understands it not All the Light and Knowledge that may seem sometimes to rise up in unhallowed mindes is but like those fuliginous flames that arise up from our culinary fire that are soon quench'd in their own smoak or like those foolish fires that fetch their birth from terrene exudations that doe but hop up down and flit to and fro upon the surface of this earth where they were first brought forth and serve not so much to enlighten as to delude us nor to direct the wandring traveller into his way but to lead him farther out of it While we lodge any filthy vice in us this will be perpetually twisting up it self into the thread of our finest-spun Speculations it will be continually climbing up into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hegemonicall powers of the Soul into the bed of Reason and defile it like the wanton Ivie twisting it self about the Oak it will twine about our Judgments and Understandings till it hath suck'd out the Life and Spirit of them I cannot think such black oblivion should possess the Mindes of some as to make them question that Truth which to Good men shines as bright as the Sun at noon-day had they not foully defil'd their own Souls with some hellish vice or other how fairly soever it may be they may dissemble it There is a benumming Spirit a congealing Vapour that ariseth from Sin and Vice that will stupifie the senses of the Soul as the Naturalists say there is from the Torpedo that smites the senses of those that approach to it This is that venemous Solanum that deadly Nightshade that derives its cold poyson into the Understandings of men Such as Men themselves are such will God himself seem to be It is the Maxim of most wicked men That the Deity is some way or other like themselves their Souls doe more then whisper it though their lips speak it not and though their tongues be silent yet their lives cry it upon the house-tops in the publick streets That Idea which men generally have of God is nothing else but the picture of their own Complexion that Archetypall notion of him which hath the supermacie in their mindes is none else but such an one as hath been shap'd out according to some pattern of themselves though they may so cloathe and disguise this Idol of their own when they carry it about in a pompous Procession to expose it to the view of the world that it may seem very beautiful and indeed any thing else rather then what it is Most men though it may be they themselves take no great notice of it like that dissembling Monk doe aliter sentire in Scholis aliter in Musaeis are of a different judgment in the Schools from what they are in the retirements of their private closets There is a double head as well as a double heart Mens corrupt hearts will not suffer their notions and conceptions of divine things to be cast into that form that an higher Reason which may sometime work within them would put them into I would not be thought all this while to banish the belief of all Innate notions of Divine Truth but these are too often smother'd or tainted with a deep dye of mens filthy lusts It is but lux sepulta in opaci materia light buried and stifled in some dark body from whence all those colour'd or rather discolour'd notions and apprehensions of divine things are begotten Though these Common notions may be very busie somtimes in the vegetation of divine Knowledge yet the corrupt vices of men may so clog disturb and overrule them as the Naturalists say this unruly and masterless matter doth the natural forms in the formation of living creatures that they may produce nothing but Monsters miserably distorted misshapen This kind of Science as Plotinus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 companying too familiarly with Matter and receiving and imbibing it into it selfe changeth its shape by this incestuous mixture At best while any inward lust is harboured in the minds of men it will so weaken them that they can never bring forth any masculine or generous knowledge as Aelian observes of the Stork that if the Night-owle chanceth to sit upon her eggs they become presently as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all incubation rendred impotent and ineffectual Sin and lust are alway of an hungry nature and suck up all those vital affections of mens Souls which should feed and nourish their Understandings What are all our most sublime Speculations of the Deity that are not impregnated with true Goodness but insipid things that have no tast nor life in them that do but swell like empty froath in the souls of men They doe not feed mens souls but onely puffe them up fill them with Pride Arrogance and Contempt and Tyrannie towards those that cannot well ken their subtile Curiosities as those Philosophers that Tully complains of in his times qui disciplinā suam ostentationē scientiae non legem vitae putabant which made their knowledge onely matter of ostentation to venditate and set off themselves but never caring to square and govern their lives by it Such as these doe but Spider-like take a great deal of pains to spin a worthless web out of their own bowels which will not keep them warm These indeed are those silly Souls that are ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the Truth They may with Pharaoh's lean kine eat up and devoure all Tongues and Sciences and yet when they have done still remain lean and ill-favour'd as they were at first-Jejune and barren Speculations may be hovering and fluttering up and down about Divinity but they cannot settle or fix themselves upon it they unfold the Plicatures of Truth 's garment but they cannot behold the lovely face of it There are hidden Mysteries in Divine
Truth wrapt up one within another which cannot be discern'd but onely by divine Epoptists We must not think we have then attained to the right knowledge of Truth when we have broke through the outward Shell of words phrases that house it up or when by a Logical Analysis we have found out the dependencies and coherencies of them one with another or when like stout champions of it having well guarded it with the invincible strength of our Demonstration we dare stand out in the face of the world and challenge the field of all those that would pretend to be our Rivalls We have many Grave and Reverend Idolaters that worship Truth onely in the Image of their own Wits that could never adore it so much as they may seem to doe were it any thing else but such a Form of Belief as their own wandring speculations had at last met together in were it not that they find their own image and superscription upon it There is a knowing of the truth as it is in Jesus as it is in a Christ-like nature as it is in that sweet mild humble and loving Spirit of Jesus which spreads itself like a Morning-Sun upon the Soules of good men full of light and life It profits litle to know Christ himself after the flesh but he gives his Spirit to good men that searcheth the deep things of God There is an inward beauty life and loveliness in Divine Truth which cannot be known but onely then when it is digested into life and practice The Greek Philosopher could tell those high-soaring Gnosticks that thought themselves no less then Jovis alites that could as he speaks in the Comedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cried out so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look upon God that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Without Vertue and real Goodness God is but a name a dry and empty Notion The profane sort of men like those old Gentile Greeks may make many ruptures in the walls of God's Temple and break into the holy ground but yet may finde God no more there then they did Divine Truth is better understood as it unfolds itself in the purity of mens hearts and lives then in all those subtil Niceties into which curious Wits may lay it forth And therefore our Saviour who is the great Master of it would not while he was here on earth draw it up into any Systeme or Body nor would his Disciples after him He would not lay it out to us in any Canons or Articles of Belief not being indeed so careful to stock and enrich the World with Opinions and Notions as with true Piety and a Godlike pattern of purity as the best way to thrive in all spiritual understanding His main scope was to promote an Holy life as the best and most compendious way to a right Belief He hangs all true acquaintance with Divinity upon the doing Gods will If any man will doe his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God This is that alone which will make us as S. Peter tells us that we shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour There is an inward sweetness and deliciousness in divine Truth which no sensual minde can tast or rellish this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that natural man that savours not the things of God Corrupt passions and terrene affections are apt of their own nature to disturb all serene thoughts to precipitate our Judgments and warp our Understandings It was a good Maxime of the old Jewish Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Spirit dwells not in terrene and earthly passions Divinity is not so well perceiv'd by a subtile wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by a purified sense as Plotinus phraseth it Neither was the antient Philosophy unacquainted with this Way and Method of attaining to the knowledge of Divine things and therefore Aristotle himself thought a Young man unfit to meddle with the grave precepts of Morality till the heat and violent precipitancy of his youthful affections was cool'd and moderated And it is observed of Pythagoras that he had several waies to try the capacity of his Scholars and to prove the sedateness and Moral temper of their minds before he would entrust them with the sublimer Mysteries of his Philosophy The Platonists were herein so wary and solicitous that they thought the Mindes of men could never be purg'd enough from those earthly dregs of Sense and Passion in which they were so much steep'd before they could be capable of their divine Metaphysicks and therefore they so much solicite a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are wont to phrase it a separation from the Body in all those that would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Socrates speaks that is indeed sincerely understand Divine Truth for that was the scope of their Philosophy This was also intimated by them in their defining Philosophy to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Meditation of Death aiming herein at onely a Moral way of dying by loosening the Soul from the Body and this Sensitive life which they thought was necessary to a right Contemplation of Intelligible things and therefore besides those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the Souls of men were to be separated from sensuality and purged from fleshly filth they devised a further way of Separation more accommodated to the condition of Philosophers which was their Mathemata or Mathematical Contemplations whereby the Souls of men might farther shake off their dependency upon Sense and learn to go as it were alone without the crutch of any Sensible or Material thing to support them and so be a little inur'd being once got up above the Body to converse freely with Immaterial natures without looking down again and falling back into Sense Besides many other waies they had whereby to rise out of this dark Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are wont to call them several steps and ascents out of this miry cave of mortality before they could set any sure footing with their Intellectual part in the land of Light and Immortal Being And thus we should pass from this Topick of our Discourse upon which we have dwelt too long already but that before we quite let it goe I hope we may fairly make this use of it farther besides what we have openly driven at all this while which is To learn not to devote or give up our selves to any private Opinions or Dictates of men in matters of Religion nor too zealously to propugne the Dogmata of any Sect. As we should not like rigid Censurers arraign condemn the Creeds of other men which we comply not with before a full mature understanding of them ripened not onely by the natural sagacity of our own Reasons but by the benign influence of holy and mortified Affection so neither should we over-hastily credere in fidem alienam subscribe to the Symbols and Articles of other men They
Reason and Sensuality run one into another and make up a most dilute unsavourie and muddie kinde of Knowledge We must therefore endeavour more and more to withdraw our selves from these Bodily things to set our Souls as free as may be from its miserable slavery to this base Flesh we must shut the Eyes of Sense and open that brighter Eye of our Understandings that other Eye of the Soul as the Philosopher calls our Intellectual Faculty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which indeed all have but few make use of it This is the way to see clearly the light of the Divine World will then begin to fall upon us and those sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those pure Coruscations of Immortal and Ever-living Truth will shine out into us and in Gods own light shall we behold him The fruit of this Knowledge will be sweet to our tast and pleasant to our palates sweeter then the hony or the hony-comb The Priests of Mercury as Plutarch tells us in the eating of their holy things were wont to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sweet is Truth But how sweet and delicious that Truth is which holy and heaven-born Souls feed upon in their mysterious converses with the Deity who can tell but they that tast it When Reason once is raised by the mighty force of the Divine Spirit into a converse with God it is turn'd into Sense That which before was onely Faith well built upon sure Principles for such our Science may be now becomes Vision We shall then converse with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas before we convers'd with him onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with our Discursive faculty as the Platonists were wont to distinguish Before we laid hold on him onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a strugling Agonistical and contentious Reason hotly combating with difficulties and sharp contests of divers opinions labouring in it self in its deductions of one thing from another we shall then fasten our minds upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with such a serene Understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an Intellectual calmness and serenity as will present us with a blissful steady and invariable sight of him SECTION III. AND now if you please setting aside the Epicurean herd of Brutish men who have drowned all their own sober Reason in the deepest Lethe of Sensuality we shall divide the rest of Men into these Four ranks according to that Method which Simplicius upon Epictetus hath already laid out to us with a respect to a Fourfold kinde of Knowledge which we have all this while glanced at The First whereof is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or if you will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Complex and Multifarious man that is made up of Soul Body as it were by a just equality and Arithmetical proportion of Parts and Powers in each of them The knowledge of these men I should call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plutarch's phrase a Knowledge wherein Sense and Reason are so twisted up together that it cannot easily be unravel'd and laid out into its first principles Their highest Reason is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 complying with their senses and both conspire together in vulgar opinion To these that Motto which the Storcks have made for them may very well agree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their life being steer'd by nothing else but Opinion and Imagination Their higher notions of God and Religion are so entangled with the Birdlime of fleshly Passions and mundane Vanity that they cannot rise up above the surface of this dark earth or easily entertain any but earthly conceptions of heavenly things Such Souls as are here lodg'd as Plato speaks are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy behinde and are continually pressing down to this world's centre and though like the Spider they may appear sometime moving up and down aloft in the aire yet they doe but sit in the loome and move in that web of their own gross fansies which they fasten and pin to some earthly thing or other The Second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The man that looks at himself as being what he is rather by his Soul then by his Body that thinks not fit to view his own face in any other Glass but that of Reason and Understanding that reckons upon his Soul as that which was made to rule his Body as that which was born to obey and like an handmaid perpetually to wait upon his higher and nobler part And in such an one the Communes notitiae or common Principles of Vertue and Goodness are more clear and steady To such an one we may allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more clear and distinct Opinions as being already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Method or course of Purgation or at least fit to be initiated into the Mysteria minora the lesser Mysteries of Religion For though these Innate notions of Truth may be but poor empty and hungry things of themselves before they be fed and fill'd with the practice of true Vertue yet they are capable of being impregnated and exalted with the Rules and Precepts of it And therefore the Stoick suppos'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the doctrine of Political and Moral vertues was fit to be delivered to such as these and though they may not be so well prepared for Divine Vertue which is of an higher Emanation yet they are not immature for Humane as having the Seeds of it already within themselves which being water'd by answerable practice may sprout up within them The Third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He whose Soule is already purg'd by this lower sort of Vertue and so is continually flying off from the Body and Bodily passion and returning into himself Such in S. Peter's language are those who have escaped the pollutions which are in the world through lust To these we may attribute a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lower degree of Science their inward sense of Vertue and moral Goodness being far transcendent to all meer Speculative opinions of it But if this Knowledge settle here it may be quickly apt to corrupt Many of our most refined Moralists may be in a worse sense then Plotinus means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full with their own pregnancy their Souls may too much heave and swell with the sense of their own Vertue and Knowledge there may be an ill Ferment of Self-love lying at the bottome which may puffe it up the more with Pride Arrogance and Self-conceit These forces with which the Divine bounty supplies us to keep a stronger guard against the evil Spirit may be abus'd by our own rebellious Pride enticing of them from their allegiance to Heaven to strengthen it self in our Souls and fortifie them against Heaven like that supercilious Stoick who when he thought his Minde well arm'd and appointed with Wisdome and Vertue cry'd out Sapiens contendet cum ipso Jove de felicitate They may make an aiery heaven of
therefore the true Cause and Rise of Superstition is indeed nothing else but a false opinion of the Deity that renders him dreadfull and terrible as being rigorous and imperious that which represents him as austere and apt to be angry but yet impotent and easy to be appeased again by some flattering devotions especially if performed with sanctimonious shewes and a solemn sadness of Mind And I wish that that Picture of God which some Christians have drawn of him wherein Sowreness and Arbitrariness appear so much doth not too much resemble it According to this sense Plutarch hath well defined it in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strong passionate Opinion and such a Supposition as is productive of a fear debasing and terrifying a man with the representation of the Gods as grievous and hurtfull to Mankind Such men as these converse not with the Goodness of God and therefore they are apt to attribute their impotent passions and peevishness of Spirit to him Or it may be because some secret advertisements of their Consciences tell them how unlike they themselves are to God and how they have provoked him they are apt to be as much displeased with him as too troublesome to them as they think he is displeased with them They are apt to count this Divine Supremacy as but a piece of Tyranny that by its Soveraign Will makes too great encroachments upon their Liberties and that which will eat up all their Right and Property and therefore are slavishly afraid of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fearing Heaven's Monarchy as a severe and churlish Tyranny from which they cannot absolve themselves as the same Author speaks and therefore he thus discloseth the private whisperings of their minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the broad gates of hell are opened the rivers of fire and Stygian inundations run down as a swelling flood there is thick darkness crouded together dreadfull and gastly Sights of Ghosts screeching and howling Judges and tormentors deep gulfes and Abysses full of infinite miseries Thus he The Prophet Esay gives us this Epitome of their thoughts chap. 33. The Sinners in Zion are afraid fearfullness hath surprized the hypocrites who shall dwell with the devouring fire who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Though I should not dislike these dreadful astonishing thoughts of future torment which I doubt even good men may have cause to press home upon their own spirits while they find Ingenuity less active the more to restrain sinne yet I think it litle commends God and as little benefits us to fetch all this horror astonishment from the Contemplations of a Deity which should alwayes be the most serene and lovely our apprehensions of the Deity should be such as might ennoble our Spirits and not debase them A right knowledge of God would beget a freedome Liberty of Soul within us and not servility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch hath well observ'd our thoughts of a Deity should breed in us hopes of Vertue and not gender to a spirit of bondage But that we may pass on Because this unnaturall resemblance of God as an angry Deity in impure minds should it blaze too furiously like the Basilisk would kill with its looks therefore these Painters use their best arts a little to sweeten it and render it less unpleasing And those that fancy God to be most hasty and apt to be displeased yet are ready also to imagine him so impotently mutable that his favour may be won again with their uncouth devotions that he will be taken with their formall praises and being thirsty after glory and praise solemn addresses may by their pompous furnishing out all these for him be won to a good liking of them and thus they represent him to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore Superstition will alwaies abound in these things whereby this Deity of their own made after the similitude of men may be most gratified slavishly crouching to it We will take a view of it in the words of Plutarch though what refers to the Jews if it respects more their Rites then their Manners may seem to contain too hasty a censure of them Superstition brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wallowings in the dust tumblings in the mire observations of Sabbaths prosternations uncouth gestures strange rites of worship Superstition is very apt to think that Heaven may be bribed with such false-hearted devotions as Porphyrie hath well explain'd it by this that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apprehension that a man may corrupt and bribe the Deity which as he there observes was the Cause of all those bloudy sacrifices and of some inhumane ones among the Heathen men imagining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like him in the Prophet that thought by the fruit of his body and the firstlings of his flock to expiate the sinne of his Soul Micah 6. But it may be we may seeme all this while to have made too Tragicall a Description of Superstition and indeed our Author whom we have all this while had recourse to seemes to have set it forth as anciently Painters were wont to doe those pieces in which they would demonstrate most their own skill they would not content themselves with the shape of one Body onely but borrowed severall parts from severall Bodies as might most fit their design and fill up the picture of that they desired chiefly to represent Superstition it may be looks not so foul and deformed in every Soul that is dyed with it as he hath there set it forth nor doth it every where spread it self alike this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that shrowds it self under the name of Religion wil variously discover it self as it is seated in Minds of a various temper and meets with variety of matter to exercise it self about We shall therefore a little further inquire into it and what the Judgments of the soberest men anciently were of it the rather for that a learned Author of our own seems unwilling to own that Notion of it which we have hitherto out of Plutarch and others contended for who though he hath freed it from that gloss which the late Ages have put upon it yet he may seem to have too strictly confined it to a Cowardly Worship of the ancient Gentile Daemons as if Superstition and Polytheism were indeed the same thing whereas Polytheism or Daemon-worship is but one branch of it which was partly observed by the learned Casaubon in his Notes upon that Chapter of Theophrastus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where it is describ'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he thus interprets Theophrastus voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deos Daemones complexus est quicquid divinitatis esse particeps malesana putavit antiquitas And in this sense it was truly observed by Petronius Arbiter Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor The
with that common sense and Experience which we have of our Souls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul being nothing else but that Innate force and power which it hath within it to stir up such thoughts and motions within it self as it finds it self most free to And therefore when we reflect upon the productions of our own Souls we are soon able to find out the first Efficient cause of them And though the subtilty of some Wits may have made it difficult to find out whether the Understanding or the Will or some other Facultie of the Soul be the First Mover whence the motus primò primus as they please to call it proceeds yet we know it is originally the Soul it self whose vital acts they all are and although it be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First Cause as deriving all its virtue from it self as Simplicius distinguisheth in 1. de An. cap. 1. yet it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vitally co-working with the First Causes of all But on the other side when we come to examine those Motions which arise from the Body this stream runs so far under ground that we know not how to trace it to the head of it but we are fain to analyse the whole artifice looking from the Spirits to the Blood from that to the Heart viewing all along the Mechanical contrivance of Veins and Arteries neither know we after all our search whether there be any Perpetuum mobile in our own Bodies or whether all the motions thereof be onely by the redundancy of some external motions without us nor how to find the First mover in nature though could we find out that yet we know that there is a Fatal determination which sits in all the wheels of meer Corporeal motion neither can they exercise any such noble freedome as we constantly find in the Wills of men which are as large and unbounded in all their Elections as Reason it self can represent Being it self to be Lucretius that he might avoid the dint of this Argument according to the Genius of his Sect feigns this Liberty to arise from a Motion of declination whereby his Atomes alwaies moving downwards by their own weight towards the Centre of the World are carried a little obliquely as if they tended toward some point different from it which he calls clinamen principiorum Which riddle though it be as good as any else which they who held the Materiality and Mortality of Souls in their own nature can frame to salve this difficulty yet is of such a private interpretation that I believe no Oedipus is able to expound it But yet by what we may guesse at it we shall easily find that this insolent conceit and all else of this nature destroys the Freedome of Will more then any Fate which the severest censours thereof whom he sometimes taxeth ever set over it For how can any thing be made subject to a free and impartial debate of Reason or fall under the Level of Free-will if all things be the meer result either of a Fortuitous or Fatal motion of Bodies which can have no power or dominion over themselves and why should he or his great Master find so much fault with the Superstition of the world and condemn the Opinions of other men when they compare them with that transcendent sagacity they believe themselves to be the Lords of if all was nothing else but the meer issue of Material motions seeing that necessity which would arise from a different concourse and motion of several particles of Matter begetting that diversity of Opinions and Wills would excuse them all from any blame Therefore to conclude this Argument Whatsoever Essence finds this Freedome within it self whereby it is absolved from the rigid laws of Matter may know it self also to be Immaterial and having dominion over its own actions it will never desert it self and because it finds it self non vi alienâ sed suâ moveri as Tully argues it feels it self able to preserve it self from the forrein force of Matter and can say of all those assaults which are at any time made against those sorry mud-walls which in this life inclose it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoick did all this is nothing to me who am yet free and can command within when this feeble Carkass is able no longer to obey me and when that is shattered and broken down I can live any where else without it for I was not That but had onely a command over It while I dwelt in it But before we wholly desert this Head we may adde some further strength to it from the Observation of that Conflict which the Reasons and Understandings of men maintain against the Sensitive appetite and wheresoever the Higher powers of Reason in a man's Soul prevail not but are vanquish'd by the impetuousness of their Sensual affections through their own neglect of themselves yet are they never so broken but they may strengthen themselves again and where they subdue not men's inordinate Passions and Affections yet even there will they condemn them for them Whereas were a Man all of one piece and made up of nothing else but Matter these Corporeal motions could never check or controul themselves these Material dimensions could not struggle with themselves or by their own strength render themselves any thing else then what they are But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks call it this Self-potent Life which is in the Soul of man acting upon it self and drawing forth its own latent Energie finds it self able to tame the outward man and bring under those rebellious motions that arise from the meer Animal powers and to tame and appease all those seditions and mutinies that it finds there And if any can conceive all this to be nothing but a meer fighting of the male-contented pieces of Matter one against another each striving for superiority and preeminence I should not think it worth the while to teach such an one any higher learning as looking upon him to be indued with no higher a Soul then that which moves in Beasts or Plants CHAP. V. The third Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That Mathematical Notions argue the Soul to be of a true Spiritual and Immaterial Nature WE shall now consider the Soul awhile in a further degree of Abstraction and look at it in those Actions which depend not at all upon the Body wherein it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks speak and converseth onely with its own Being Which we shall first consider in those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mathematical notions which it conteins in it self and sends forth from within it self which as they are in themselves Indivisible and of such a perfect nature as cannot be received or immersed into Matter so they argue that Subject in which they are seated to be of a true Spiritual and Immaterial nature Such as a pure Point Linea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
to love him with a most Universall and Unbounded Love to trust in him and reverence him to converse with him in a free chearful manner as One in whom we live and move and have our Beings being perpetually encompassed by him and never moving out of him to resign all our Waies and Wills up to him with an equall and indifferent mind as knowing that he guides and governs all things in the Best way to sink our selves as low in Humility as we are in Self-nothingness And because all those scatter'd Raies of Beauty and Loveliness which we behold spread up and down all the World over are onely the Emanations of that inexhausted Light which is above therefore should we love them all in that and climb up alwaies by those Sun-beams unto the Eternall Father of Lights we should look upon him and take from him the pattern of our lives and alwaies eying of him should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Hierocles speaks polish and shape our Souls into the clearest resemblance of him and in all our behaviour in this World that Great Temple of his deport our selves decently and reverently with that humility meekness and modesty that becomes his house We should endeavour more and more to be perfect as he is in all our dealing with men doing good shewing mercy and compassion advancing justice and righteousness being alwaies full of charity and good works and look upon our selves as having nothing to doe here but to display blazon the glory of our heavenly Father and frame our hearts and lives according to that Pattern which we behold in the Mount of a holy Contemplation of him Thus we should endeavour to preserve that Heavenly fire of the Divine Love and Goodness which issuing forth from God centres it self within us and is the Protoplastick virtue of our Beings alwaies alive and burning in the Temple of our Souls and to sacrifice our selves back again to him And when we fulfill this Royall Law arising out of the heart of Eternity then shall we here appear to be the Children of God when he thus lives in us as our Saviour speaks Matth. 5. And so we shall close up this Particular with that High privilege which Immortall Souls are invested with they are all the Off-spring of God for so S. Paul allows the Heathen Poet to call them they are all royally descended and have no Father but God himself being originally formed into his image and likeness and when they express the purity and holiness of the Divine Life in being perfect as God is perfect then they manifest themselves to be his Children Matth. 5. And in Matth. 7. Christ encourageth men to seek and pray for the Spirit which is the best gift that God can give to men because he is their Heavenly Father much more bountifull and tender to all helpless Souls that seek to him then any earthly parent whose Nature is degenerated from that primitive goodness can be to his children But those Apostate Spirits that know not to return to the Originall of their Beings but implant themselves into some other stock and seek to incorporate and unite themselves to another line by sin and wickedness cut themselves off from this divine priviledge and lose their own birth-right they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may borrow that phrase and lapse into another nature All this was well express'd by Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Souls are the Children of God but all of them know not their God but such as know him and live like to him are called the Children of God CHAP. IX An APPENDIX concerning the Reason of Positive Laws BUT here as an Appendix to the two former Deductions it may be of good use to enquire into the Reason of such Laws as we call Positive which God hath in all times as is commonly suppos'd enjoyn'd obedience to which are not the Eternall dictates and Decretals of the Divine Nature communicating it self to Immortall Spirits but rather deduce their Originall from the free will and pleasure of God To solve this Difficulty that of S. Paul may seem a fit Medium who tells us The Law was added because of transgression though I doubt not but he means thereby the Morall Law as well as any other The true intent and scope of these Positive laws and it may be of such an externall promulgation of the Morall seems to be nothing else but this to secure the Eternall Law of Righteousness from transgression As the Jews say of their decreta sapientum that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hedge to the Law so we may say of these Divine Decretals they were but cautionary and preventive of disobedience to that Higher Law and therefore Saint Paul tells us why the Morall Law was made such a Political business by an external promulgation c. 1 Tim. 1. 9. not so much because of righteous men in whom the Law of Nature lives who perform the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any outward Law but it was given for the lawless and disobedient c. And therefore I doubt not but we may safely conclude that God gave not those Positive Laws meerly pro imperio if I may use that expression it was not meerly to manifest his Absolute Dominion Soveraignty as some think but for the good of those that were enjoyned to obey and this belief Moses endeavours almost throughout the whole Book of Deuteronomy to strengthen the Israelites in and therefore God was so ready upon all occasions to dispense with these Laws and requires the Jews to omit the observance of them when they might seem to justle with any other Law of Morall duty or Humane necessity as may be observ'd in many Instances in Scripture But for a more distinct unfolding of this point we may take notice of this difference in the notion of Good and Evil as we are to converse with them Some things are so absolutely and somethings are so onely relatively That which is absolutely good is every way Superiour to us and we ought alwaies to be commanded by it because we are made under it But that which is relatively good to us may sometime be commanded by us Eternall Truth and Righteousness are in themselves perfectly absolutely good and the more we conform our selves to them the better we are But those things that are onely good relatively and in order to us we may say of them that they are so much the better by how much the more they are conform'd to us I mean by how much the more they are accommodated and fitted to our estate and condition and may be fit means to help and promote us in our pursuit of some Higher good and such indeed is the matter of all Positive Laws and the Symbolicall or Rituall part of Religion And as we are made for the former viz. what is absolutely good to serve that so are these latter
coram illo nullum est operimentum perditioni as the Vulgar Latin renders it The Giants groan under the waters and they that dwell with them Hell is naked before him that is God and destruction hath no covering In like manner our Saviour sets forth Hell as a great valley of fire like that of Hinnom which was prepared with a great deal of skill to torture and torment the Devils in Again we find Heaven set forth sometimes as a place of continual banqueting where according to the Jewish customes they should lye down in one anothers bosomes at a perpetuall Feast Sometimes as a Paradise furnished with all kinds of delight and pleasure Again when the Scripture would infinuate God's seriousness and realitie in any thing it brings him in as ordering it a great while agoe before the foundation of the world was laid as if he more regarded that then the building of the world I might instance in many more things of this nature wherein the Philosophical or Physical nature and Literal veritie of things cannot so reasonably be supposed to be set forth to us as the Moral and Theological But I shall leave this Argument and now come more precisely to consider of the nature of Prophesie by which God flows in upon the Minds of men extrinfecally to their own proper operations and converghs truth immediately from himself into them CHAP. II. That the Prophetical Spirit did not alwaies manifest it self with the same clearnesse and evidence The Gradual difference of Divine illumination between Moses the Prophets and the Hagiographi A general survey of the Nature of Prophesie properly so called Of the joint impressions and operations of the Understanding and Phansie in Prophesie Of the four degrees of Prophesie The difference between a Vision and a Dream BUT before we doe this we shall briefly premise something in general concerning that Gradual variety whereby these Divine Enthusiasms were discover'd to the Prophets of old The Prophetical Spirit did not alwaies manifest it self eodem vigore luminis with the same clearness and evidence in the same exaltation of its light But sometimes that light was more strong and vivid sometimes more wan and obscure which seems to be insinuated in that passage Heb. 1. 1. God who in time past spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So we find an evident difference of Prophetical illumination asserted in Scripture between Moses and the rest of the Prophets Deut. 34. 10. And there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face which words have a manifest reference to that which God himself in a more publick and open way declared concerning Moses upon occasion of some arrogant speeches of Aaron and Miriam who would equalize their own Degree of Prophesie to that of Moses Numb 12. 5 6 7 8. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the Tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forth And he said Hear my words If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream My servant Moses is not so who is faithfull in all mine house with him will I speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses In which words that degree of Divine illumination whereby God made himself known to Moses seems to be set forth as something transcendent to the Prophetical illumination and so the phrase of the New Testament is wont to distinguish between Moses and the Prophets as if indeed Moses had been greater then any Prophet But besides this Gradual difference between Moses and the Prophets there is another difference very famous amongst the Jewish Writers between the Prophets and the Hagiographi which Hagiographi were suppos'd by them to be much inferior to the Prophets But what this difference between them was we shall endeavour to shew more fully hereafter Having briefly premised this and glanced at a Threefold Inspiration relating to Moses the Prophets and the Hagiographi we shall first of all enquire into the Nature of that which is peculiarly amongst the Jews called Prophetical And this is thus defined to us by Maimonides in Par. 2. c. 36. of his More Nevochim Veritas quidditas Prophetiae nihil aliud est quà m Influentia à Deo Optimo Maximo mediante intellectu Agente super facultatem Rationalem primò deinde super facultatem Imaginatricem influens i. e. The true essence of Prophesie is nothing else but an Influence from the Deitie upon the Rational first and afterwards the Imaginative Facultie by the mediation of the Active intellect Which Definition belongs indeed to Prophesie as it is Technicallie so called and distinguished by Maimonides both from that degree of Divine illumination which was above it which the Masters constantly attribute to Moses and from that other degree inferior to it which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus Sanctus that Holy Spirit that moved in the Souls of the Hagiographi But Rabbi Joseph Albo in Maam 3. c. 8. De fundamentis fidei hath given us a more large description so as to take in also the gradus Mosaicus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Prophesie is an influence from God upon the Rational facultie either by the Mediation of the Fansie or otherwise and this influence whether by the ministry of an Angel or otherwise makes a man to know such things as by his Natural abilities he could not attain to the knowledg of Though here our Author seems too much to have streightned the latitude of Prophetical influence whereby as we intimated before not only those pieces of Divine truth may be communicated to the Souls of men which are not contained within their own Ideas but also those may be excited which have a necessarie connexion with and dependence upon Reason But the main thing that we shall observe in this description is that Facultie or Power of the Soul upon which these Extraordinarie impressions of Divine light or influence are made which in all proper Prophesie is both the Rational and Imaginative power For in this Case they supposed the Imaginative power to be set forth as a Stage upon which certain Visa and Simulacra were represented to their Understandings just indeed as they are to us in our common Dreams only that the Understandings of the Prophets were alwaies kept awake and strongly acted by God in the midst of these apparitions to see the intelligible Mysteries in them and so in these Types and Shadows which were Symbols of some spiritual things to behold the Antitypes themselves which is the meaning of that old Maxime of the Jews which we formerly cited out of Maimonides Magna est virtus seu fortitudo Prophetarum qui
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's the propertie of a Diviner to be Ecstaticall to undergoe some violence to be tossed and hurried about like a mad man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it 's otherwise with a Prophet whose understanding is awake and his mind in a sober and orderly temper and he knows every thing that he saith But here we must not mistake the business as if there were nothing but the most absolute Clearness and Serenitie of thoughts lodging in the Soul of the Prophet amidst all his Visions And therefore we shall further take notice of that Observation of the Jews which is vulgarly known by all acquainted with their Writings which is concerning those Panick fears Consternations and Affrightments and Tremblings which frequently seized upon them together with the Prophetical influx And indeed by how much stronger and more vehement those Impressions were which were made by those unwonted Visa which came in to act upon their Imaginative facultie by so much the greater was this Perturbation and Trouble and by how much the more the Prophets Imagination was exercised by the laboriousness of these Phantasms the more were his natural strength and Spirits exhausted as indeed it must needs be Therefore Daniel being wearied with the toilsome work of his Phansie about those Visions that were presented to him Chap. 10. 8. c. complains that there was no strength left in him that his comeliness was turned into corruption and he retained no strength that when he heard the voice he was in a deep sleep and his face toward the ground that his sorrows were turned upon him and no breath was left in him So Gen. 15. 12. when the Vision presented to Abraham passed into a Prophetical Dream it is said a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and a horror of great darkness fell upon him Upon which passage Maimonides in the 2 d Part 41. Ch. of his More Nevochim thus discourseth Quandoque autem Prophetia incipit in Visione Prophetica postea multiplicatur terror passio illa vehemens quae sequitur perfectionem operationum facultatis Imaginatricis tum demum venit Prophetia sicuti contigit Abrahamo In principio enim Prophetiae illius dicitur Gen. 15. 1. Et fuit verbum Domini ad Abrahamum in Visione et in fine ejusdem vers 12. Et sopor irruit in Abrahamum c. And in like manner he speaks of those Fatigations that Daniel complains of Est autem terror quidam Panicus qui occupat Prophetam inter vigilandum ficut ex Daniele patet quando ait Et vidi Visionem magnam hanc neque remansit in me ulla fortitudo vis mea mutata est in corruptionem nec retinui fortitudinem ullam Et fui lethargo oppressus super faciem meam facies mea ad terram And thus this whole business is excellently decyphered unto us by R. Albo in his Third book and tenth chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold by reason of the strength of the Imaginative facultie and the precedencie of the Influence upon that to the influence upon the Rational the Influx doth not remain upon the Prophet without Terrour and Consternation insomuch that his members shake and his joints are loosned and he seems like one that is readie to give up the ghost by reason of his great astonishment After all which perturbation the Prophetical influx settles it self upon the Rational Facultie From this Notion perhaps we may borrow some light for the clearing of Jeremie 23. 9. Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets all my bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom Wine hath overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of his Holiness The importance of which words is That the Energy of Prophetical vision wrought thus potently upon his Animal part Though I know R. Solomon seems to look at another meaning But Abarbanel is here full for our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When Jeremy saw those false prophets eating and drinking and faring deliciouslie he cried out and said My heart is broken within me because of the Prophets For while I behold their works my heart is rent asunder with the extremity of my Sorrow and because of the Prophetical influx residing upon me my bones are all rotten and I am like a drunken man that neither sees nor hears And all this hath befell me because of the Lord that is because of the divine influx that seized upon me and because of the words of his Holinesse which have wrought such a conturbation within me that all my senses are stupified thereby And thus I suppose is also that passage in Ezechiel 3. 14. to be expounded where the Prophet describes the Energie and dominion which the Prophetical spirit had over him when in a Prophetical Vision he was carried by way of Imagination a tedious journey to those of the Captivitie that dwelt by the river Chebar The Spirit of the Lord lifted me up and took me away and I went in bitterness and in the heat or hot chafing and anger of my spirit but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me So Habak 3. 2. O Lord I have heard thy speech and was affraid that is the Prophetical voice heard by him and represented in his Imagination was so strong that it struck a Panick fear as Maimon expresseth it into him And it may be the same thing is meant Esay 21. 3. where the Prophet describes that inward conturbation and consternation that his Vision of Babylon's ruine was accompanied withall Therefore are my loins fill'd with pain pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth I was bowed down at the hearing of it I was dismaied at the seeing of it Though I know there may be another meaning of that place not improper viz. that the Prophet personates Babylon in the horrour of that anguish that should come upon them whereby he sets it forth the more to the Life as Jonathan the Targumist and others would have it though yet I cannot think this the most congruous meaning But I have now done with this Particular and I hope by this time have gain'd a fair advantage of solving one Difficultie which though it be not so much observ'd by our own as it is by the Jewish writers yet it is worth our scanning viz. How the Prophets perceived when the Prophetical inspiration first seized upon them For as we have before shewed there may be such Dreams and Visions which are meerly delusive and such as the false prophets were often partakers of and besides the true Prophets might have often such Dreams as were meerly vera somnia True dreams but not Prophetical For the full Solution of this knot we have before shewed how this Pseudo-prophetical Spirit only flutters below upon the more terrene parts of mans Soul his Passions and Phansie The Prince of darkness comes not within the Sphere of Light and
Egypt and his Servants Princes People to all the Arabians and Kings of the Land of UZ to the Kings of the Land of the Philistines Edom Moab Ammon the Kings of Tyre and Sidon and of the Isles beyond the Sea Dedan Tema Buz the Kings of Zimri of the Medes and Persians and all the Kings of the North and all these he said he made to drink of this Cup. And in this fashion Chap. 27. he is sent up down with Yokes to put upon the necks of several Kings all which can have no other sense then that which is meerly Imaginarie though we be not told that all this was acted only in a Vision for the nature of the thing would not permit any real performance thereof The like we must say of Ezekiel's res gestae his eating a roll given him of God Chap. 3. And Chap. 4. it's especially remarkable how ceremoniously all things are related concerning his taking a Tile and pourtraying the City of Jerusalem upon it his laying siege to it all which I suppose will be evident to have been meerly Dramatical if we carefully examine all things in it notwithstanding that God tells him he should in all this be a Signe to the people Which is not so to be understood as if they were to observe in such real actions in a sensible way what their own Fates should be for he is here commanded to lie continually before a Tile 390 days which is full 13 Months upon his left side and after that 40 more upon his right and to bake his bread that he should eat all this while with dung c. So Chap. 5. he is commanded to take a Barbers rasour and to shave his head and beard then to weigh his hair in a pair of Scales and divide it into three parts and after the days of his Siege should be fulfilled spoken of before then to burn a third part of it in the midst of the City and to smite about the other third with a knife and to scatter the other third to the wind All which as it is most unlikely in it self ever to have been really done so was it against the Law of the Priests to shave the corners of their heads and the corners of their beards as Maimonides observes But that Ezekiel himself was a Priest is manifest from Chap. 1. ver 3. Upon these passages of Ezekiel Maimonides hath thus soberly given his judgment More Nev. Part. 2. c. 46. Absit ut Deus Prophetas suos stultis vel ebriis similes reddat eósque stultorum aut furiosorum actiones facere jubeat praeterquam quòd praeceptum illud ultimum Legi repugnasset c. Far be it from God to render his Prophets like to fools and drunken men and to prescribe them the actions of fools and mad men besides that this last injunction would have been inconsistent with the Law for Ezekiel was a great Priest and therefore oblig'd to the observation of those two Negative precepts viz. of not shaving the corners of his head and corners of his beard And therefore this was done only in a Prophetical Vision The same sentence likewise he passeth upon that story of Esaiah Chap. 20. 3. his walking naked and bare-foot wherein Esaiah was no otherwise a Signe to Aegypt and Aethiopia or rather Arabia where he dwelt not and so could not more literally be a Type therein then Ezekiel was here to the Jews Again Chap. 12. we read of Ezekiel's removing his houshold-stuff in the night as a Type of the Captivitie and of his digging with his hands through the wall of his house and of the peoples coming to take notice of this strange action with many other uncouth ceremonies of the whole business which carry no shew of probabilitie and yet ver 6. God declares upon this to him I have set thee for a signe to the house of Israel and ver 9. Son of man hath not the house of Israel the rebellions house said unto thee What doest thou As if all this had been done really which indeed seems to be nothing else but a Prophetical Scheme Neither was the Prophet any real Signe but only Imaginary as having the Type of all those Fates symbolically represented in his phansie which were to befall the Jews which sense Kimchi a genuine Commentator follows with the others mentioned And it may be according to this same notion is that in Chap. 24. to be understood of the death of the Prophet's Wife with the manner of those funeral solemnities and obsequies which he performed for her But we shall proceed no farther in this Argument which I hope is by this time sufficiently cleared That we are not in any Prophetical narratives of this kind to understand any thing else but the History of the Visions themselves which appeared to them except we be led by some farther argument of the realitie of the thing in a way of sensible appearance to determine it to have been any sensible thing CHAP. VII Of that Degree of Divine inspiration properly call'd Ruach hakkodesh i. e. The Holy Spirit The Nature of it described out of Jewish Antiquities Wherein this Spiritus Sanctus differ'd from Prophesie strictly so call'd and from the Spirit of Holiness in purified Souls What Books of the Old Testament were ascribed by the Jews to Ruach hakkodesh Of the Urim and Thummim THus we have done with that part of Divine inspiration which was more Technically and properly by the Jews called Prophesie We shall now a little search into that which is Hagiographical or as they call it The Dictate of the Holy Spirit in which the Book of Psalms Job the works of Solomon and others are comprised This we find very appositely thus defined by Maimonides More Nev. Part. 2. c. 45. Cùm homo in se sentit rem vel facultatem quampiam exoriri super se quiescere quae eum impellit ad loquendum c. When a man perceives some Power to arise within him and rest upon him which urgeth him to speak so that he discourse concerning the Sciences or Arts and utter Psalms or Hymns or profitable and wholesome Rules of good living or matters Political and Civil or such as are Divine and that whilst he is waking and hath the ordinarie vigour and use of his Senses this is such a one of whom it 's said that He speaks by the Holy Spirit In this Definition we may seem to have the strain of the Book of Psalms Proverbs and Ecolesiastes fully decyphered to us In like manner we find this Degree of Inspiration described by R. Albo Maam. 3. c. 10. after he had set down the other Degrees superiour to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now to explain to you what is that other Doore of Divine influx through which none can enter by his own natural abilitie it is when a man utters words of Wisdome or Song or Divine praise in pure and elegant language besides his wont so that every one that knows
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
Righteousness of Faith which the Apostle sets up against the Law and compares with it is indeed in its own nature a Vital and Spiritual administration wherein God converseth with Man whereas the Law was merely an External or Dead thing in it self not able to beget any true Divine life in the Souls of Men. All that Legal Righteousness which the Jews boasted so much of was but from the Earth earthly consisting merely in External performances so falling extremely short of that Internal God-like frame of Spirit which is necessary for a true conjunction and union of the Souls of Men with God and making of them capable of true Blessedness But that we may the more distinctly handle this Argument we shall endeavour to unfold the true Difference between the Law and the Gospel as it seems evidently to be laid down every where by S. Paul in his Epistles and the Difference between them is clearly this viz. That the Law was merely an External thing consisting in such Precepts which had only an Outward administration but the Gospel is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle seating it self in the Minds and Spirits of Men. And this is the most proper and formal Difference between the Law and Gospel that the one is considered only as an External administration and the other as an Internal And therefore the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. 6 7. calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the letter and of death it being in it self but a dead letter as all that which is without a mans Soul must needs be But on the other side he calls the Gospel because of the Intrinsecal and Vital administration thereof in living impressions upon the Souls of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of the Spirit and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of righteousness By which he cannot mean the History of the Gospel or those Credenda propounded to us to believe for this would make the Gospel it self as much an External thing as the Law was and according to the External administration as much a killing or dead letter as the Law was and so we see that the preaching of Christ crucified was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness But indeed he means a Vital efflux from God upon the Souls of men whereby they are made partakers of Life and Strength from him and therefore ver 7. he thus Exegetically expounds his own meaning of that short description of the Law namely that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I think may be fitly thus translated it was a dead or liveless administration for so sometimes by an Hebraisme the Genitive case in regimine is put for the Adjective or else an administration of death exhibited in letters and engraven in tables of Stone and therefore he tells us ver 6. what the Effect of it was in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The letter killeth as indeed all External precepts which have not a proper vital radication in the Souls of men whereby they are able to secure them from the transgression of them must needs doe Now to this dead or killing letter he opposes ver 8. a quickning Spirit or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the Spirit which afterwards v. 9. he expounds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness that is the Evangelical administration So that the Gospel or Evangelical administration must be an Internal impression a vivacious and Energetical Spirit and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men whereby they are inwardly enabled to express a real conformity thereto Upon this Ground the Apostle further pursues the Effects of both these from the 14. verse to the end By all which the Apostle means to set forth to us How vast a Difference there is between the External manifestations of God in a Law of Commandements and those Internal appearances of God whereby he discovers the mighty power of his Goodness to the Souls of men Though the History and outward Communication of the Gospel to us in scriptis is to be always acknowledged as a special mercy advantage and certainly no less Privilege to Christians then it was to the Jews to be the Depositaries of the Oracles of God yet it is plain that the Apostle where he compares the Law and the Gospel and in other places doth by the Gospel mean something which is more then a piece of Book-learning or an Historical Narration of the free love of God in the several contrivances of it for the Redemption of mankind For if this were all that is meant properly by the Gospel I see no reason why it should not be counted as weak and impotent a thing as dead a letter as the Law was as we intimated before and so there would be no such vast Difference between them as the Apostle asserts there is the one being properly an External declaration of Gods will the other an Internal manifestation of Divine life upon mens Souls and therefore Gal. 3. 21. he so distinguisheth between this double Dispensation of God that this Evangelical dispensation is a vital and quickening thing able to beget a Soul and Form of Divine goodness upon the Souls of men which because the Law could not doe it was laid aside as being insufficient to restore man to the favour of God or to make him partaker of his righteousness If there had been a Law which could have given life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verily Righteousness should have been by the Law where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seems to mean the same thing which he meant by it when in his Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the Oeconomy of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken among the Jewish writers for acceptance with God and that Internal form of Righteousness that qualifies the Soul for Eternal life and so he takes it in a far more large and ample sense then that External righteousness of Justification is and indeed it seems to express the Just state of those who are renewed by the Spirit of God and made partakers of that Divine life which is emphatically called the Seed of God For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness which he here speaks of is the proper result of an enlivening and quickening Law which is this New Law of the Gospel in opposition to that Old Law which was administred only in scriptis and therefore this New Law is called in the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 8. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the better Covenant whereas the Old was faulty In which place this is put down as the Formal difference between the Legal and Evangelical administration or the Old and New Covenant That the Old Covenant was only externally promulged and wrapt up as it were in Ink and Parchment or as best engraven
upon tables of Stone whereas this New Covenant is set forth in living characters imprinted upon the Vital powers of mens Souls as we have ver 10 11. This is the Covenant that I will make c. I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts and therefore the Old Covenant is v. 7. said not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unblamable or faultless thing because it was not able to keep off trangressions or hinder the violation of it self no more then an Inscription upon some Pillar or Monument is able to inspire life into those that read it and converse with it the Old Law or Covenant being in this respect no other then all other Civil Constitutions are which receive their efficacy merely from the willing compliance of mens Minds with them so that they must be enlivened by the Subject that receivs them being dead things in themselves But the Evangelical or New Law is such a thing as is an Efflux of life and power from God himself the Original thereof produceth life wheresoever it comes And to this double Dispensation viz. of Law and Gospel doth S. Paul clearly refer 2 Cor. 3. 3. You are the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of Stone which last words are a plain Gloss upon that mundane kind of administring the Law in a mere External way to which he opposeth the Gospel And this Argument he further pursues in the 7 and 8 chapters of the Epistle to the Romans in which last chap. v. 2. he stiles the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of the spirit of life which was able to destroy the power of Sin and to introduce such a spiritual and heavenly frame of Soul into men as whereby they might be enabled to express a chearfull compliance with the Law of God and demonstrate a true heavenly conversation and God-like life in this world We read in Iamblichus and others of the many preparatory Experiments used by Pythagoras to try his Scholars whether they were fit to receive the more sublime and sacred pieces of his Philosophy and that he was wont to communicate these only to Souls in a due degree purified and prepared for such doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what did all this signifie but only this that he might by all these Methods work and mold the Minds of his Hearers into such a fit Temper as that he might the better stamp the Seal of his more Divine Doctrine upon them and that his Discourses to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things just and lovely and good might be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly and really in the Soul that I may use Plato's words in his Phaedrus where he commends the Impressions of Truth which are made upon mens Souls above all outward Writings which he therefore compares to dead pictures By this we see what the wisest and best Philosophers thought of this Internal writing But it peculiarly belongs to God to write the Laws of Goodness in the Tables of mens hearts All the outward Teachings of men are but dead things in themselves But God's imprinting his Mind and Will upon mens hearts is properly that which is called the Teaching of God and then they become living Laws written in the living Tables of mens Hearts fitted to receive and retain Divine impressions I shall only adde that speech of a Chymist not impertinent in this place Non tam discendo quà m patiendo divina perficitur Mens humana And that we may come a little nearer to these words upon which all this present Discourse is built this seems to be the Scope of his argument in this place where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law of righteousness may fairly be parallel'd with that which before he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of the spirit and which he therefore calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of faith because it is received from God in a way of believing For I cannot easily think that he should mean nothing else in this place but merely the Righteousness of Justification as some would perswade us but rather that his Sense is much more comprehensive so as to include the state of Gospel-dispensation which includes not only Pardon of sins but an Inward spirit of Love Power and of a sound Mind as he expresseth it 2 Tim. 1. 7. And this he thus opposeth to the Law Rom. 10. 6 c. But the Righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into heaven c. or Who shall descend into the deep But what saith it The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach In which words Cunaeus in his De Repub. Hebr. would have us to understand some Cabbala or Tradition amongst the Jews for this meaning of that place Deut. 30. 12. from which these words are borrowed which as they there stand seem not to carry that Evangelical sense which here S. Paul expounds them into though yet Cunaeus hath not given us any reason for this opinion of his But indeed the Jewish writers generally who were acquainted with the principles of the Cabbala commenting upon that place do wholly refer it to the Times of the Messiah making it parallel with that place of Jeremy which defines the New Covenant to be a writing of the Law of God in mens hearts And thus that Life and Salvation that results from the Righteousness of Faith is all as Faith it self is deriving from God gratuitously dispensing himself to the Minds of men Whereas if Life could have been by the Law it s Original and Principal must have been resolved into men themselves who must have acted that dead matter without them and have produced that Virtue and Energy in it by their exercising themselves therein which of it self it had not as the Observance of any Law enables that Law it self to dispense that Reward which is due to the observance of it and therefore the Righteousness of the Law was so defin'd that he that did those things should live in them And thus the New Testament every where seems to present to us this twofold Dispensation or Oeconomy the one consisting in an External and written law of Precepts the other in Inward life and power Which S. Austin hath well pursued in his Book de Litera Spiritu from whom Aquinas who endeavours to tread in his foot-steps seems to have taken first of all an occasion of moving that Question Utrum Lex nova sit lex scripta vel lex indita and thus resolves it That the New Law or Gospel is not properly lex scripta as the Old was but Lex indita and that the Old Law is foris scripta the other intus scripta written in the tables of the Heart Now from all this we may easily
and ungrounded suspitions of his partiality with that Question If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted Wheresoever God finds any stamps and impressions of Goodness he likes and approves them knowing them well to be what they indeed are nothing else but his own Image and Superscription Whereever he sees his own Image shining in the Souls of men and a conformity of life to that Eternal Idea of Goodness which is himself he loves it and takes a complacency in it as that which is from himself and is a true Imitation of himself And as his own unbounded Being Goodness is the Primary and Original object of his Immense and Almighty Love so also every thing that partakes of him partakes proportionably of his Love all Imitations of him and Participations of his Love and Goodness are perpetually adequate and commensurate the one to the other By so much the more acceptable any one is to God by how much the more he comes to resemble God It was a common Notion in the old Pythagorean and Platonick Theology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Proclus phraseth it That the Divinity transformed into Love and enamour'd with it's own unlimited Perfections and spotless Beauty delighted to copy forth and shadow out it self as it were in created Beings which are perpetually embraced in the warm bosome of the same Love which they can never swerve nor apostatize from till they also prove apostate to the estate of their Creation And certainly it is true in our Christian divinity that that Divine light and goodness which flows forth from God the Original of all upon the Souls of men never goes solitary and destitute of Love Complacency and Acceptation which is alwaies lodg'd together with it in the Divine Essence And as the Divine Complacency thus dearly and tenderly entertains all those which beare a similitude of true Goodness upon them so it alwaies abandons from its embraces all Evil which never doth nor can mix it self with it The Holy Spirit can never suffer any unhallowed or defiled thing to enter into it or to unite it self with it Therefore in a sober sense I hope I may truly say There is no perfect or through-reconciliation wrought between God and the Souls of men while any defiled and impure thing dwells within the Soul which cannot truly close with God nor God with that The Divine Love according to those degrees by which it works upon the Souls of men in transforming them into its own likeness by the same it renders them more acceptable to it self mingleth it self with and uniteth it self to them as the Spirit of any thing mixeth it self more or less with any Matter it acts upon according as it works it self into it and so makes a way and passage open for it self Upon this account I suppose it may be that S. James attributes a kind of Justification to Good works which unquestionably are things that God approves and accepts and all those in whom he finds them as seeing there a true conformity to his own Goodness and Holiness Whereas on the other side he disparageth that barren sluggish and drowsie Belief that a lazy Lethargy in Religion began in his times to hugg so dearly in reference to acceptation with God I suppose I may fairly thus gloss at his whole Discourse upon this Argument God respects not a bold confident and audacious Faith that is big with nothing but its own Presumptions It is not because our Brains swim with a strong Conceit of God's Eternal love to us or because we grow big and swell into a mighty bulk with airy fancies and presumptions of our acceptance with God that makes us ere the more acceptable to him It is not all our strong Dreams of being in favour with Heaven that fills our hungry souls ere the more with it It is not a pertinacious Imagination of our Names being enrolled in the Book of life or of the Debt-books of Heaven being crossed or of Christ being ours while we find him not living within us or of the washing away of our sins in his bloud while the foul and filthy stains thereof are deeply sunk in our own Souls it is not I say a pertinacious Imagination of any of these that can make us ere the better And a mere Conceit or Opinion as it makes us never the better in reality within our selves so it cannot render us ere the more acceptable to God who judges of all things as they are No it must be a true Compliance with the Divine will which must render us such as the Divinity may take pleasure in In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision availeth any thing nor any Fancy built upon any other External privilege but the keeping of the Commandments of God No but If any man does the will of God him will both the Father and the Son love they will come in to him and make their abode with him This is the Scope and Mark which a true Heaven-born Faith aims at and when it hath attain'd this End then is it indeed perfect and compleat in its last accomplishment And by how much the more ardency and intention Faith levels at this mark of inward goodness and divine activity by so much the more perfect and sincere it is This is that which God justifies it being just and correspondent to his own good pleasure and in whomsoever he finds this both it and they are accepted of him And so I come to the second Particular God's justifying of Sinners in pardoning and remitting their sins carries in it a necessary reference to the sanctifying of their Natures without which Justification would rather be a glorious name then a real privilege to the Souls of men While men continue in their wickedness they do but vainly dream of a device to tie the hands of an Almighty Vengeance from seizing on them No their own Sins like so many armed Gyants would first or last set upon them and rend them with inward torment There needs no angry Cherub with a flaming Sword drawn out every way to keep their unhallowed hands off from the Tree of life No their own prodigious Lusts like so many arrows in their sides would chase them their own Hellish natures would sink them low enough into eternal death and chain them up fast enough in fetters of darkness among the filthy fiends of Hell Sin will alwaies be miserable and the Sinner at last when the empty bladders of all those hopes and expectations of an aiery mundane Happiness that did here bear him up in this life shall be cut will find it like a Talent of Lead weighing him down into the bottomless gulf of Misery If all were clear towards Heaven we should find Sin raising up storms in our own Souls We cannot carry Fire in our own bosoms and yet not be burnt Though we could suppose the greatest Serenity without us if we could suppose our selves nere so much to be at
of sinners insatiably greedy after their prey never satisfied till they have devoured the Souls of men Lest we should by such dreadful apprehensions be driven from God we are told of the Bloud of sprinkling that speaks better things for us of a mighty Favourite solliciting our Cause with perpetual intercessions in the Court of heaven of a new and living way to the Throne of grace and to the Holy of holies which our Saviour hath consecrated through his flesh We are told of a great and mighty Saviour able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him We heare of the most compassionate and tender Promises that may be from the Truth it self that Whosoever comes to him he will in no wise cast out that They that believe on him out of them should flow streams of living water We hear of the most gracious invitations that Heaven can make to all weary and heavy-laden sinners to come to Christ that they may find rest The great Secrets of Heaven and the Arcana of Divine Counsells are revealed whereby we are acquainted that Glory to God in the highest Peace on earth Good will towards men are sweetly joined together in Heavens harmony and happily combin'd together in the composure of it's Ditties That the Glory of the Deity and Salvation of men are not allaied by their union one with another but both exalted together in the most transcendent way that Divine love and bounty are the supreme rulers in Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no such thing as sowre Despight and Envy lodged in the bosome of that ever-blessed Being above whose name is LOVE and all whose Dispensations to the Sons of men are but the dispreadings and distended radiations of his Love as freely flowing forth from it through the whole orbe and sphear of its creation as the bright light from the Sun in the firmament of whose benign influences we are then only deprived when we hide and withdraw our selves from them We are taught that the mild and gentle breathings of the Divine Spirit are moving up and down in the World to produce life and to revive and quicken the Souls of men into a feeling sense of a blessed Immortality This is that mighty Spirit that will if we comply with it teach us all things even the hidden things of God mortifie all the lusts of rebellious Flesh and seal us up to the day of redemption We are taught that with all holy boldness we may in all places lift up holy hands to God without wrath or doubting without any sowre thoughts of God or fretfull jealousies or harsh surmises We can never distrust enough in our selves nor ever trust too much in God This is the great Plerophory and that full Confidence which the Gospel every where seems to promote and should I run through all the Arguments and Solicitations that are there laid down to provoke us to an entertainment hereof I should then run quite through it from one end to another it containing almost nothing else in the whole Complex and Body of it but strong and forcible Motives to all Ingenuous addresses to God and the most effectual Encouragement that may be to all chearfull dependance on him and confident expectation of all assistance from him to carry on our poor endeavours to the atchievment of Blessedness and that in the most plain and simple way that may be sine fraude fuco without any double mind or mental reservation Heaven is not acquainted so feelingly with our wicked arts and devices But it is very strange that where God writes Life so plainly in fair Capital letters we are so often apt to read Death that when he tells us over and over that Hell destruction arise from our selves that they are the workmanship of our own hands we will needs understand their Pedegree to be from Heaven and that they were conceived in the Womb of Life and Blessedness No but the Gospel tells us we are not come to Mounts of burning nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest c. Hebr. 12. v. 18. Certainly a lively Faith in this Love of God and a sober converse with his Goodness by a cordial entertainment and through perswasion of it would warm and chafe our benummed Minds and thaw our Hearts frozen with Self-love it would make us melt and dissolve out of all Self-consistencie and by a free and noble Sympathie with the Divine love to yield up our selves to it and dilate and spread our selves more fully in it This would banish away all Atheisme and ireful slavish Superstition it would cast down every high thought and proud imagination that swells within us and exalts it self against this soveraign Deity it would free us from all those poor sorry pinching and particular Loves that here inthrall the Souls of men to Vanity and Baseness it would lead us into the true liberty of the sons of God filling our Hearts once enlarged with the sense of it with a more generous and universal love as unlimited and unbounded as true Goodness it self is Thus Moses-like conversing with God in the Mount and there beholding his glory shining thus out upon us in the face of Christ we should be deriving a Copy of that Eternal beauty upon our own Souls and our thirstie and hungry spirits would be perpetually sucking in a true participation and image of his glory A true divine Love would wing our Souls and make them take their flight swiftly towards Heaven and Immortality Could we once be throughly possess'd and mastered with a full confidence of the Divine love and God's readiness to assist such feeble languishing creatures as we are in our assays after Heaven and Blessedness we should then finding our selves borne up by an Eternal and Almighty strength dare to adventure courageously and confidently upon the highest designes of Happiness to assail the kingdome of heaven with a holy gallantry and violence to pursue a course of well-doing without weariness knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord and that we shall receive our Reward if we faint not We should work out our salvation in the most industrious manner trusting in God as one ready to instill strength and power into all the vital faculties of our Souls We should press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended of Christ Jesus If we suffer not our selves to be robb'd of this Confidence and Hope in God as ready to accomplish the desires of those that seek after him we may then walk on strongly in the way to Heaven and not be weary we may run and not faint And the more the Souls of men grow in this blissfull perswasion the more they shall mount up like Eagles into a clear Heaven finding themselvs rising higher and higher above all those filthy mists those clouds and tempests of a slavish Fear
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
true face of Vertue and a good Bodily temperament will serve it as a flattering glass to bestow beauty upon a deformed and mis-shapen Mind that it may seem vertuous But it is not a true Spirit of Religion whatsoever those wanton wits may call it that is thus Particular and confin'd No that is of a subtile and working nature it will be searching through the whole man and leave nothing uninformed by it self as it is with the Soul that runs through all the portions of Matter and every member of the Body Sin and Grace cannot lodge together they cannot divide and share out between them two several Dominions in one Soul What is commonly said of Truth in general we may say more especially of true Goodness magna est praevalebit it will lodge in the Souls of men like that mighty though gentle Heat which is entertained in the Heart that alwaies dispenseth warm Bloud and Spirits to all the members in the Body it will not suffer any other Interest to grow by it it will be so absolute as to swallow up all our carnal freedom and crush down all our fleshly liberty as Moses his Serpent did eate up all the Serpents of the Egyptian Magicians so will it devour all that viperous brood of iniquity which our Magical Self-will by her witchcraft and enchantments begets within us like a strong and vehement Flame within us it will not only singe the hair or scorch and blister the skin but it will go on to consume this whole Body of death it is compared by our Saviour to Leaven that will ferment the whole mass in which it is wrap'd up it will enter into us like the Refiner's fire and the Fuller's Soape like the Angel of God's presence that he promised to send along with the Israelites in their journy to Canaan it will not pardon our iniquities nor indulge any darling lust whatsoever it will narrowly pry into all our actions and be spying out all those back-waies and dores whereby Sin and Vice may enter That Religion that runs out only in Particularities and is overswayed by the prevailing power of any Lust is but only a dead carkass and not indeed that true living Religion which comes from Heaven and which will not suffer it self to be confin'd that will not indent with us or article upon our tearms and conditions but Sampson like will break all those bonds which our fleshly and harlot-like wills would tie it with and become every way absolute within us And so I pass to the Second thing wherein men are apt to delude themselves in taking an Estimate of their own Religion viz. CHAP. III. The Second Mistake about Religion viz. A meer complyance of the Outward man with the Law of God True Religion seats it self in the Centre of mens Souls and first brings the Inward man into Obedience to the Law of God the Superficial Religion intermeddles chiefly with the Circumference and Outside of men or rests in an outward abstaining from some Sins Of Speculative and the most close and Spiritual wickedness within How apt men are to sink all Religion into Opinions and External Forms A Mere compliance of the Outward man with the Law of God There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Philosophy hath acknowledged as well as our Christian Divinity and when Religion seats it self in the Centre of mens Souls it acts there most strongly upon the Vital powers of it and first brings the Inward man into a true and chearfull obedience to the law of God before all the seditious and rebellious motives of the External or Animal man be quite subdued But a Superficial Religion many times intermeddles only with the Circumference and Outside of men it only lodges in the suburbs and storms the out-works but enters not the main Fort of mens Souls which is strongly defended by inward Pride Self-will particular and mundane Loves fretting and self-consuming Envy Popularity and Vain-glory and such other Mental vices that when they are beaten out of the visible behaviours and conversations of men by Divine threats or promises which may be too potent to be controll'd retreat and secure themselves here as in a strong Castle There may be many who dare not pursue Revenge and yet are not willing to forgive injuries who dare not murther their enemy that yet cannot love him who dare not seek for preferment by Bribery who yet are not mortified to these and many other mundane and base-born affections they are not willing that the Divine prerogative should extend it self beyond the Outward man and that Religion should be too busie with their Inward thoughts and passions if they may not by proud boasting set off their own sorry commodities upon the publick stage and there read out their own Panegyricks yet they will inwardly applaud themselves and commit wanton dalliance with their own Parts and Perfections and not feeling the mighty power of any Higher good they will endeavour to preserve an unhallowed Autaesthesie and feeling sense of themselves and by a sullen melancholy Stoicisme when Religion would deprive and bereave them of the sinfull glory and pleasures of this Outward world they then retire and shrink themselves up into a Centre of their own they collect and contract themselves into themselves Thus when this low life of mens Souls is chased out of the External vices and vanities of this World by the chastisements of their own Consciences or many times by bodily oppressions it presently retires into it self and by a Self-feeling begins more to grasp and dearly embrace it self When these External loves begin to be starved and cooled yet men may then fall into love with and courting of themselves by Arrogancy Self-confidence and dependence Self-applause and gratulations Admiration of their own perfections and so feed that dying life of theirs with this Speculative wantonness that it may as strongly express it self within them as before it did without themselves Men may by inward braving of themselves sacrilegiously steal God's glory from him and erect a Self-supremacy within exerting it self in Self-will and particular loves and so become Corrivals with God for the Crown of Blessedness and Self-sufficiency as I doubt many of the Stoicks endeavoured with a Giant-like ambition to doe But alas I doubt we generally arrive not to this pitch of Religion to deny the world and all the pomp and glory of this largely-extended train of Vanity but we easily content our selves with some External forms of Religion We are too apt to look at a garish dress and attire of Religion or to be enamoured rather with some more specious and seemingly-spiritual Forms then with the true Spirit Power of Godliness Religion it self We are more taken commonly with the several new fashions that the luxuriant Fancies of men are apt to contrive for it then with the real power and simplicity thereof and while we think our selves to be growing in our
will be as scant and sparing as may be here they will be as strict with God as may be that he may have no more then his due as they think like that Unprofitable servant in the Gospel that because his Master was an austere man reaping where he had not sown and gathering where he had not scattered was content and willing he should have his own again but would not suffer him to have any more This Servile spirit in Religion is alwaies illiberal and needy in the Magnalia Legis the great and weightier matters of Religion and here weighs out Obedience by drams and scruples it never finds it self more shrivell'd and shrunk up then when it is to converse with God like those creatures that are generated of slime and mud the more the Summer-sun shines upon them and the nearer it comes to them the more is all their vital strength dried up and spent away their dreadfull thoughts of God like a cold Eastern wind blasts all their blossoming affections and nips them in the bud these exhaust their native vigour and make them weak and sluggish in all their motions toward God Their Religion is rather a Prison or a piece of Penance to them then any voluntary and free compliance of their Souls with the Divine will and yet because they bear the burden and heat of the day they think when the evening comes they ought to be more liberally rewarded such slavish spirits being ever apt inwardly to conceit that Heaven receives some emolument or other by their hard labours and so becomes indebted to them because they see no true gain and comfort accruing from them to their own Souls and so because they doe God's work and not their own they think they may reasonably expect a fair compensation as having been profitable to him And this I doubt was the first and vulgar foundation of Merit though now the world is ashamed to own it But alas such an ungodlike Religion as this can never be owned by God the Bond-woman and her son must be cast out The Spirit of true Religion is of a more free noble ingenuous and generous nature arising out of the warm beams of the Divine love which first hatch'd it and brought it forth and therefore is it afterwards perpetually bathing it self in that sweetest love that first begot it and is alwaies refresh'd and nourish'd by it This Love casteth out fear fear which hath torment in it and is therefore more apt to chase away Souls once wounded with it from God rather then to allure them to God Such fear of God alwaies carries in it a secret Antipathy against him as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch speaks one that is so troublesome that there is no quiet or peaceable living with him Whereas Love by a strong Sympathy draws the Souls of men when it hath once laid hold upon them by its powerfull insinuation into the nearest conjunction that may be with the Divinity it thaws all those frozen affections which a Slavish fear had congealed and lock'd up and makes the Soul most chearfull free and nobly resolved in all its motions after God It was well observed of old by Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are never so well as when we approach to God when in a way of Religion we make our addresses to God then are our Souls most chearfull True Religion and an Inward acquaintance with God discovers nothing in him but pure and sincere Goodness nothing that might breed the least distaste or disaffection or carry in it any semblance of displeasingness and therefore the Souls of good men are never pinching and sparing in their affections then the Torrent is most full and swells highest when it empties it self into this unbounded Ocean of the Divine Being This makes all the Commandements of God light and easie and far from being grievous There needs no Law to compel a Mind acted by the true spirit of divine love to serve God or to comply with his Will It is the choice of such a Soul to endeavour to conform it self to him and draw from him as much as may be an Imitation of that Goodness and Perfection which it finds in him Such a Christian does not therefore obey his Commands only because it is God's Will he should doe so but because he sees the Law of God to be truly perfect as David speaks his nature being reconciled to God finds it all holy just and good as S. Paul speaks and such a thing as his Soul loves sweeter then the honey or the honey-combe and he makes it his meat and drink to doe the Will of God as our Lord and Saviour did And so I pass to the Fourth and last Particular wherein Religion is sometimes mistaken CHAP. V. The Fourth and last Mistake about Religion When a mere Mechanical and Artificial Religion is taken for that which is a true Impression of Heaven upon the Souls of men and which moves like a new Nature How Religion is by some made a piece of Art and how there may be specious and plausible Imitations of the Internals of Religion as well as of the Externals The Method and Power of Fancy in contriving such Artificial imitations How apt men are in these to deceive both themselves and others The Difference between those that are govern'd in their Religion by Fancy and those that are actuated by the Divine Spirit and in whom Religion is a Living Form That True Religion is no Art but a new Nature Religion discovers it self best in a Serene and clear Temper of Mind in deep Humility Meekness Self-denial Universal love of God and all true Goodness THE Fourth and last Particular wherein men mis-judge themselves is When a mere Mechanical and Artificial Religion is taken for that which is a true Impression of Heaven upon the Souls of men and which moves like an Inward nature True Religion will not stoop to Rules of Art nor be confin'd within the narrow compass thereof No where it is we may cry out with the Greek Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath there kindled as it were his own Life which will move and act only according to the Laws of Heaven But there are some Mechanical Christians that can frame and fashion out Religion so cunningly in their own Souls by that Book-skill they have got of it that it may many times deceive themselves as if it were a true living thing We often hear that mere Pretenders to Religion may go as far in all the External acts of it as those that are best acquainted with it I doubt not also but many times there may be Artificial imitations drawn of that which only lives in the Souls of good Men by the powerful and wily Magick of exalted Fancies as we read of some Artificers that have made such Images of living creatures wherein they have not only drawn forth the outward shape but seem almost to have copied out the life
too in them Men may make an Imitation as well of those things which we call the Internals of Religion as of the Externals There may be a Semblance of inward Joy in God of Love to him and his Precepts of Dependance upon him and a filial Reverence of him which by the contrivance and power of Fancie may be represented in a Masque upon the Stage of the Animal part of a mans Soul Those Christians that fetch all their Religion from pious Books and Discourses hearing of such and such Signs of Grace and Evidences of Salvation and being taught to believe they must get those that so they may go to Heaven may presently begin to set themselves on work and in an Apish imitation cause their Animal Powers and Passions to represent all these and Fancie being well acquainted with all those several Affections in the Soul that at any time express themselves towards Outward things may by the power it hath over the Passions call them all forth in the same Mode and fashion then conjoin with them some Thoughts of God and Divine things which may serve thus put together for a handsome Artifice of Religion wherein these Mechanicks may much applaud themselves I doubt not but there may be such who to gain credit with themselves and that glorious name of being the Children of God though they know nothing more of it but that it is a Title that sounds well would use their best skill to appear such to themselves so qualified and molded as they are told they must be And as many times Credit and Reputation among men may make them pare off the Ruggedness of their Outward man and polish that so to gain their own good opinion and a reputation with their own Consciences which look more inwardly they may also endeavour to make their Inward man look at some times more smooth and comely and it is no hard matter for such Chamaeleon-like Christians to turn even their insides into whatsoever hue and colour shall best please them and then Narcissus-like to fall in love with themselves a strong and nimble Fancie having such command over the Animal spirits that it can send them forth in full troops which way soever it pleaseth and by their aide call forth and raise any kind of Passion it listeth and when it listeth allay it again as the Poets say Aeolus can doe with the Winds As they say of the force of Imagination that Vis Imaginativa signat foetum so Imagination may stamp any Idea that it finds within itself upon the Passions and turn them as it pleases to what Seal it will set upon them and mold them into any likeness and a man looking down and taking a view of the Plot as it is acted upon the Stage of the Animal powers may like and approve it as a true Platform of Religion Thus may they easily deceive themselves and think their Religion to be some Mighty thing within them that runs quite through them and makes all these transformations within them whereas the Rise and Motion of it may be all in the Animal and Sensitive powers of the Soul and a wise observer of it may see whence it comes and whither it goes it being indeed a thing which is from the earth earthy and not like that true Spirit of Regeneration which comes from Heaven and begets a Divine life in the Souls of good men and is not under the command of any such Charms as these are neither will it move according to those Laws and Times and Measures that we please to set to it but we shall find it manifesting its mighty supremacy over the Highest powers of our Souls Whereas we may truly say of all Mechanicks in Religion and our Mimical Christians that they are not so much actuated and informed by their Religion as they inform that the power of their own Imagination deriving that Force to it which bears it up and guides all its motions and operations And therefore they themselves having the power over it can new mold it as themselves please according to any new Pattern which shall like them better then the former they can furnish this domestick Scene of theirs with any kind of matter which the history of other mens religion may afford them and if need be act over all the Experiences of that sect of men to which they most addict themselves so to the life that they may seem to themselves as well experienc'd Christians as any others and so it may be soar so aloft in Self-conceit as if they had already made their nests amongst the stars and had viewed their own mansion in Heaven What was observed by the Stoick concerning the vulgar sort of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as truly be said of this sort of Christians their life is nothing else but a strong Energy of Fancy and Opinion But besides lest their Religion might too grosly discover it self to be nothing else but a piece of Art there may be sometimes such Extraordinary motions stirred up within them which may prevent all their own Thoughts that they may seem to be a true operation of the Divine life when yet all this is nothing else but the Energy of their own Self-love touch'd with some Fleshly apprehensions of Divine things and excited by them There are such things in our Christian Religion that when a Carnal and unhallowed mind takes the Chair and gets the expounding of them may seem very delicious to the fleshly appetites of men Some doctrines and notions of Free-Grace and Justification the magnificent Titles of Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven ever-flowing streams of Joy and Pleasure that blessed Souls shall swim in to all eternity a glorious Paradise in the world to come alway springing up with well-sented and fragrant Beauties a New Jerusalem paved with Gold and bespangled with Stars comprehending in its vast circuit such numberless varieties that a busie curiosity may spend it self about to all eternity I doubt not but that sometimes the most fleshly earthly men that fly their ambition to the pomp of this world may be so ravish'd with the conceits of such things as these that they may seem to be made partakers of the powers of the world to come I doubt not but that they may be as much exalted with them as the Souls of crazed and distracted persons seem to be sometimes when their Fancies play with those quick and nimble Spirits which a distempered frame of Body and unnatural heat in their Heads beget within them Thus may these blazing Comets rise up above the Moon and climbe higher then the Sun which yet because they have no solid consistencie of their own and are of a base and earthly allay will soon vanish and fall down again being only born up by an External force They may seem to themselves to have attain'd higher then those noble Christians that are gently mov'd by the natural force of true Goodness they may seem to
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
mangling of the Words or running out into any Critical curiosities about them I shall from these Words take occasion to set forth The Nobleness and Generous Spirit of True Religion which I suppose to be meant here by The way of life The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred above may signifie that which is divine and heavenly high and excellent as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. 2. S. Austin supposeth the things of Religion to be meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superna for this reason quòd merito excellentiae longè superant res terrenas And in this sense I shall consider it my purpose being from hence to discourse of the Excellent and Noble spirit of true Religion whether it be taken in abstracto as it is in it self or in concreto as it becomes an inward Form and Soul to the Minds and Spirits of Good men and this in opposition to that low and base-born spirit of Irreligion which is perpetually sinking from God till it couches to the very Centre of misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lowermost Hell In discoursing upon this Argument I shall observe this Method viz. I shall consider 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 CHAP. I. 1. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Original and Fountain it comes from Heaven and moves towards Heaven again God the First Excellency and Primitive Perfection All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to and Participation of the First Perfection Religion the greatest Participation of God none capable of this Divine Communication but the Highest of created Beings and consequently Religion is the greatest Excellency A twofold Fountain in God whence Religion flowes viz. 1. His Nature 2. His Will Of Truth Natural and Revealed Of an Outward and Inward Revelation of God's Will WE begin with the First viz. True Religion is a Noble thing in its Rise and Original and in regard of its Descent True Religion derives its pedigree from Heaven is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes from Heaven and constantly moves toward Heaven again it 's a Beam from God as every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning as S. James speaks God is the First Truth and Primitive Goodness True Religion is a vigorous Efflux and Emanation of Both upon the Spirits of men and therefore is called a participation of the divine Nature Indeed God hath copyed out himself in all created Being having no other Pattern to frame any thing by but his own Essence so that all created Being is umbratilis similitudo entis increati and is by some stamp or other of God upon it at least remotely allied to him But True Religion is such a Communication of the Divinity as none but the Highest of created Beings are capable of On the other side Sin and Wickedness is of the basest and lowest Original as being nothing else but a perfect degeneration from God and those Eternal Rules of Goodness which are derived from him Religion is an Heaven-born thing the Seed of God in the Spirits of men whereby they are formed to a similitude likeness of himself A true Christian is every way of a most noble Extraction of an heavenly and divine pedigree being born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above as it is express'd Joh. 3. The line of all earthly Nobility if it were followed to the beginning would lead to Adam where all the lines of descent meet in One and the Root of all Extractions would be found planted in nothing else but Adamah red Earth But a Christian derives his line from Christ who is the Only-begotten Son of God the shining forth of his glory and the Character of his person as he is stiled Heb. 1. We may truly say of Christ and Christians as Zebah and Zalmunna said of Gideon's brethren As he is so are they according to their capacity each one resembling the children of a king Titles of Worldly honour in Heavens heraldry are but only Tituli nominales but Titles of Divine dignity signify some Real thing some Real and Divine Communications to the Spirits and Minds of men All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to that Primitive Perfection of all God himself and therefore Participation of the Divine nature cannot but entitle a Christian to the highest degree of dignity Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Jo. 3. 1. Thus much for a more general discovery of the Nobleness of Religion as to its Fountain and Original We may further and more particularly take notice of this in reference to that Twofold fountain in God from whence all true Religion flows and issues forth viz. 1. His Immutable Nature 2. His Will 1. The Immutable Nature of God From thence arise all those Eternal Rules of Truth and Goodness which are the Foundation of all Religion and which God at the first Creation folded up in the Soul of man These we may call the Truths of Natural inscription understanding hereby either those Fundamental principles of Truth which Reason by a naked intuition may behold in God or those necessary Corollaries and Deductions that may be drawn from thence I cannot think it so proper to say That God ought infinitely to be loved because he commands it as because he is indeed an Infinite and Unchangeable Goodness God hath stamp'd a Copy of his own Archetypal Loveliness upon the Soul that man by reflecting into himself might behold there the glory of God intra se videre Deum see within his Soul all those Ideas of Truth which concern the Nature and Essence of God by reason of its own resemblance of God and so beget within himself the most free and generous motions of Love to God Reason in man being Lumen de Lumine a Light flowing from the Fountain and Father of Lights and being as Tully phraseth it participata similitudo Rationis aternae as the Law of Nature the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law written in mans Heart is participatio Legis aternae in Rationali creatura it was to enable Man to work out of himself all those Notions of God which are the true Ground-work of Love and Obedience to God and conformity to him and in modling the inward man into the greatest conformity to the Nature of God was the Perfection and Efficacy of the Religion of Nature But since Mans fall from God the inward virtue and vigour of Reason is much abated the Soul having suffered a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the nearest intimacy and conjunction with God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus speaks Then indeed the Soul lives most nobly when it feels it self to live and move and have its Being in God which though the Law of Nature makes the Common condition of all created Being yet it is only True Religion that can give us a more feeling and comfortable sense of it God is not present to Wicked men when his Almighty Essence supports them and maintains them in Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he is present to him that can touch him hath an inward feeling knowledge of God and is intimately united to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to him that cannot thus touch him he is not present Religion is Life and Spirit which flowing out from God who is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath life in himself returns to him again as into its own Original carrying the Souls of Good men up with it The Spirit of Religion is alwaies ascending upwards and spreading it self through the whole Essence of the Soul loosens it from a Self-confinement and narrowness and so renders it more capacious of Divine Enjoyment God envies not his people any good but being infinitely bountifull is pleased to impart himself to them in this life so far as they are capable of his Communications they stay not for all their happiness till they come to heaven Religion alwaies carries its reward along with it and when it acts most vigorously upon the Mind and Spirit of man it then most of all fills it with an inward sense of Divine sweetness To conclude To walk with God is in Scripture made the Character of a Good man and it 's the highest perfection and privilege of Created Nature to converse with the Divinity Whereas on the contrary Wicked men converse with nothing but their Lusts and the Vanities of this fading life which here flatter them for a while with unhallowed delights and a mere Shadow of Contentment and when these are gone they find both Substance and Shadow too to be lost Eternally But true Goodness brings in a constant revenue of solid and substantial Satisfaction to the Spirit of a good man delighting alwaies to sit by those Eternal Springs that feed and maintain it the Spirit of a Good man as it is well express'd by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is alwaies drinking in Fountain-Goodness and fills it self more and more till it be filled with all the fulness of God CHAP. III. 3. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Properties c. of which this is one 1. Religion enlarges all the Faculties of the Soul and begets a true Ingenuity Liberty and Amplitude the most Free and Generous Spirit in the Minds of Good men The nearer any Being comes to God the more large free the further it slides from God the more streightned Sin is the sinking of mans Soul from God into sensual Selfishness An account when the most Generous freedom of the Soul is to be taken in its just proportions How Mechanical and Formal Christians make an Art of Religion set it such Bounds as may not exceed the scant Measure of their Principles and then fit their own Notions as so many Examples to it A Good man finds not his Religion without him but as a living Principle within him God's Immutable and Eternal Goodness the Unchangeable Rule of his Will Peevish Self-will'd and Imperious men shape out such Notions of God as are agreeable to this Pattern of themselves The Truly Religious have better apprehensions of God HAving discoursed the Nobleness of Religion in its Original and Nature we come now to consider the Excellency of Religion in its Properties its proper Effects and vital Operations In treating of this Third Particular we shall as formerly we have done without tying our selves precisely to any strict Rules of Art and Method confound the Notions of Religion in abstracto and in concreto together handling them promiscuously As Religion is a noble thing 1. in respect of its Original 2. in respect of its Nature so also 3. in respect of its Properties and Effects The First Propertie and Effect of True Religion whereby it expresseth its own Nobleness is this That it widens and enlarges all the Faculties of the Soul and begets a true Ingenuity Liberty and Amplitude the most free and Generous Spirit in the Minds of Good men Those in whom Religion rules are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a true Generous Spirit within them which shews the Nobleness of their Extraction The Jewes have a good Maxime to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None truly Noble but he that applies himself to Religion and a faithfull observance of the Divine Law Tully could see so much in his Natural Philosophy as made him say Scientia Naturae ampliat animum ad divina attollit But this is most true of Religion that in an higher sense it does work the Soul into a true divine amplitude There is a living Soul of Religion in Good men which spreading it self through all their Faculties spirits all the Wheels of motion and enables them to dilate and extend themselves more fully upon God and all Divine things without being pinched or streightened within themselves Whereas wicked men are of most narrow and confined Spirits they are so contracted by the pinching particularities of Earthly and created things so imprisoned in a dark dungeon of Sensuality and Selfishness so streightned through their Carnal designs and Ends that they cannot stretch themselves nor look beyond the Horizon of Time and Sense The nearer any Being comes to God who is that Infinite fullness that fills all in all the more vast and large and unbounded it is as the further it slides from him the more it is streightned confined as Plato hath long since concluded concerning the condition of Sensual men that they live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Shel-fish and can never move up and down but in their own prison which they ever carry about with them Were I to define Sin I would call it The sinking of a Mans Soul from God into a Sensual Selfishness All the Freedom that wicked men have is but like that of banished men to wander up and down in the wilderness of this world from one den and cave to another The more high and Noble any Being is so much the deeper radication have all its Innate vertues and Properties within it and are by so much the more Universal in their issues and actings upon other things and such an inward living principle of virtue and activity further heightned and united and informed with Light and Truth we may call Liberty Of this truly-noble and divine Liberty Religion is the Mother and Nurse leading the Soul to God and so impregnating that inward vital principle of activity and vigour that is embosom'd in it that it is able
the Almighty and to establish an unbounded Tyranny in contradiction to the Will of God which is nothing else but the Issue and Efflux of his Eternal and Unbounded Goodness This is the very Heart of the old Adam that is within men This is the Hellish Spirit of Self-will it would solely prescribe laws to all things it would fain be the source and fountain of all affaires and events it would judge all things at its own Tribunal They in whose Spirits this Principle rules would have their own Fancies and Opinions their perverse and boisterous Wills to be the just Square and Measure of all Good and Evil these are the Plumb-lines they applie to all things to find out their Rectitude or Obliquity He that will not submit himself to nor comply with the Eternal and Uncreated Will but in stead of it endeavours to set up his own will makes himself the most real Idol in the world and exalts himself against all that is called God and ought to be worshipp'd To worship a graven Image or to make cakes burn incense to the Queen of heaven is not a worse Idolatry then it is for a man to set up Self-will to devote himself to the serving of it and to give up himself to a complyance with his own will as contrary to the Divine and Eternal Will When God made the World he did not make it merely for the exercise of his Almighty power and then throw it out of his hands and leave it alone to subsist by it self as a thing that had no further relation to him But he derived himself through the whole Creation so gathering and knitting up all the several pieces of it again that as the first production and the continued Subsistence of all things is from himself so the ultimate resolution and tendency of all things might be to him Now that which first endeavoured a Divorce between God and his Creation and to make a Conquest of it was that Diabolical Arrogancy and Self-will that crept up and wound it self Serpent-like into apostate Minds and Spirits This is the true strain of that Hellish nature to live independently of God and to derive the Principles from another Beginning and carry on the line of all motions and operations to another End then God himself by whom and to whom and for whom all things subsist From what hath been said concerning this powerful and dangerous Enemy that wars against our Souls and against the Divine Will may the Excellency and Noble Spirit of True Religion appear in that it tames the impetuousness and turbulency of this Self-will Then indeed does Religion perform the highest and bravest conquests then does it display the greatness of its strength and the excellency of its power when it overcomes this great Arimanius that hath so firmly seated himself in the very Centre of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is the man of Courage and Valour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is he that subdues his Concupiscence his own Will it is a Jewish Maxime attributed to Ben Zoma and a most undoubted truth This was the grand Lesson that our great Lord Master came to teach us viz. To deny our own Wils neither was there any thing that he endeavor'd more to promote by his own Example as he tells us of himself I came down from heaven not to doe mine own will but the will of him that sent me and again Lo I come in the volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God yea thy Law is within my heart and in his greatest agonies with a clear and chearful submission to the Divine will he often repeats it Not my will but thy will be done and so he hath taught us to pray and so to live This indeed is the true life and spirit of Religion this is Religion in its Meridian altitude its just dimensions A true Christian that hath power over his own Will may live nobly and happily and enjoy a perpetually-clear heaven within the Serenity of his own Mind When the Sea of this World is most rough and tempestuous about him then can he ride safely at Anchor within the haven by a sweet complyance of his will with God's Will He can look about him and with an even and indifferent Mind behold the World either to smile or frown upon him neither will he abate of the least of his Contentment for all the ill and unkind usage he meets withall in this life He that hath got the Mastery over his own Will feels no violence from without finds no contests within and like a strong man keeping his house he preserves all his Goods in safety and when God calls for him out of this state of Mortality he finds in himself a power to lay down his own life neither is it so much taken from him as quietly and freely surrendred up by him This is the highest piece of prowess the noblest atchievement by which a man becomes Lord over himself and the Master of his own Thoughts Motions and Purposes This is the Royal prerogative the high dignity conferred upon Good men by our Lord and Saviour whereby they overcoming this both His and their Enemy their Self-will and Passions are enabled to sit down with him in his Throne as he overcoming in another way is set down with his Father in his Throne as the phrase is Revelat. 3. Religion begets the most Heroick Free and Generous motions in the Minds of Good men There is no where so much of a truly Magnanimous and raised Spirit as in those who are best acquainted with the power of Religion Other men are Slaves and Captives to one Vanity or other but the truly Religious is above them all and able to command himself and all his Powers for God That bravery and gallantness which seems to be in the great Nimrods of this world is nothing else but the swelling of their own unbounded pride and vain-glory It hath been observed of the greatest Monarchs of the world that in the midst of their Triumphs they themselves have been led Captives to one Vice or another All the Gallantry and Puissance which the Bravest Spirits of the world boast of is but a poor confined thing and extends it self only to some Particular Cases and Circumstances But the Valour and Puissance of a Soul impregnated by Religion hath in a sort an Universal Extent as S. Paul speaks of himself I can doe all things through Christ which strengtheneth me it is not determined to this or that Particular Object or Time or Place but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things whatsoever belong to a Creature fall under the level thereof Religion is by S. Paul described to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of power in opposition to the Spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. as all Sin is by Simplicius wel described to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impotency weakness Sin by its deadly infusions
as unstable unconstant tumultuous and perplex'd a thing as the world is On the contrary the Spirit of true Religion steering and directing the Mind and Life to God makes it an Uniform Stable and quiet thing as God himself is it is only true Goodness in the Soul of man guiding it steddily and uniformly towards God directing it and all its actions to the one Last End and Chief Good that can give it a true consistency and composedness within it self All Self-seeking and Self-love do but imprison the Soul and confine it to its own home the Mind of a Good man is too Noble too Big for such a Particular life he hath learn'd to despise his own Being in comparison of that Uncreated Beauty and Goodness which is so infinitely transcendent to himself or any created thing he reckons upon his choice and best affections and designes as too choice and precious a treasure to be spent upon such a poor sorry thing as himself or upon any thing else but God himself This was the life of Christ and is in some degree the life of every one that partakes of the Spirit of Christ. Such Christians seek not their own glory but the glory of him that sent them into this world they know they were brought forth into this world not to set up or drive a trade for themselves but to serve the will pleasure of him that made them to finish that work he hath appointed them It were not worth the while to have been born or to live had it been only for such a penurious End as our selves are it is most God-like and best suits with the Spirit of Religion for a Christian to live wholy to God to live the life of God having his own life hid with Christ in God and thus in a sober sense he becomes Deified This indeed is such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deification as is not transacted merely upon the Stage of Fancy by Arrogance and Presumption but in the highest Powers of the Soul by a living and quickning Spirit of true Religion there uniting God and the Soul together in the Unity of Affections Will and End I should now pass from this to another Particular but because many are apt to misapprehend the Notion of God's glory and flatter themselves with their pretended and imaginary aiming at the Glory of God I think it may be of good use a little further and more distinctly to unfold the Designe that a Religious mind drives on in directing it self and all its actions to God We are therefore to consider that this doth not consist in some Transient thoughts of God and his Glory as the End we propound to our selves in any Undertakings a man does not direct all his actions to the Glory of God by forming a Conception in his Mind or stirring up a strong Imagination upon any Action That that must be for the Glory of God it is not the thinking of God's glory that is glorifying of him As all other parts of Religion may be apishly acted over by Fancy and Imagination so also may the Internal parts of Religion many times be acted over with much seeming grace by our Fancy and Passions these often love to be drawing the pictures of Religion and use their best arts to render them more beautifull and pleasing But though true Practical Religion derives its force and beauty through all the Lower Powers of a mans Soul yet it hath not its rise nor throne there as Religion consists not in a Form of Words which signifie nothing so neither doth it consist in a Set of Fancies or Internal apprehensions Our Saviour hath best taught what it is to live to God's glory or to glorifie God viz. to be fruitfull in all holiness and to live so as that our lives may shine with his grace spreading it self through our whole man We rather glorifie God by entertaining the Impressions of his Glory upon us then by communicating any kind of Glory to him Then does a Good man become the Tabernacle of God wherein the Divine Shechinah does rest and which the Divine glory fills when the frame of his Mind and Life is wholy according to that Idea and Pattern which he receives from the Mount We best glorifie him when we grow most like to him and we then act most for his glory when a true Spirit of Sanctity Justice Meekness c. runs through all our actions when we so live in the World as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole World with that Almighty Spirit that made supports and governs all things with that Being from whence all good flows and in which there is no Spot Stain or Shadow of Evil and so being captivated and overcome by the sense of the Divine loveliness and goodness endeavour to be like him and conform our selves as much as may be to him When God seeks his own Glory he does not so much endeavour any thing without himself He did not bring this stately fabrick of the Universe into Being that he might for such a Monument of his mighty Power and Beneficence gain some Panegyricks or Applause from a little of that fading breath which he had made Neither was that gracious contrivance of restoring lapsed men to himself a Plot to get himself some Eternal Hallelujahs as if he had so ardently thirsted after the layes of glorified spirits or desired a Quire of Souls to sing forth his praises Neither was it to let the World see how Magnificent he was No it is his own Internal Glory that he most loves and the Communication thereof which he seeks as Plato sometimes speaks of the Divine love it arises not out of Indigency as created love does but out of Fulness and Redundancy it is an overflowing fountain and that love which descends upon created Being is a free Efflux from the Almighty Source of love and it is well pleasing to him that those Creatures which he hath made should partake of it Though God cannot seek his own Glory so as if he might acquire any addition to himself yet he may seek it so as to communicate it out of himself It was a good Maxime of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 w ch is better stated by * S. James God giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not And by that Glory of his which he loves to impart to his Creatures I understand those stamps and impressions of Wisdom Justice Patience Mercy Love Peace Joy and other Divine gifts which he bestows freely upon the Minds of men And thus God triumphs in his own Glory and takes pleasure in the Communication of it As God's seeking his own Glory in respect of us is most properly the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us so our seeking the Glory of God is most properly our endeavouring a Participation of his Goodness and an earnest uncessant pursuing after Divine perfection When God becomes so great in our eyes
and all created things so little that we reckon upon nothing as worthy of our aims or ambitions but a serious Participation of the Divine Nature and the Exercise of divine Vertues Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Kindness Goodness and the like When the Soul beholding the Infinite beauty and loveliness of the Divinity and then looking down and beholding all created Perfection mantled over with darkness is ravish'd into love and admiration of that never-setting brightness and endeavours after the greatest resemblance of God in Justice Love and Goodness When conversing with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a secret feeling of the virtue sweetness and power of his Goodness we endeavour to assimilate our selves to him Then we may be said to glorifie him indeed God seeks no glory but his own and we have none of our own to give him God in all things seeks himself and his own glory as finding nothing Better then himself and when we love him above all things and endeavour to be most like him we declare plainly that we count nothing Better then He is I doubt we are too nice Logicians sometimes in distinguishing between the Glory of God and our own Salvation We cannot in a true sense seek our own Salvation more then the Glory of God which triumphs most and discovers it self most effectually in the Salvation of Souls for indeed this Salvation is nothing else but a true Participation of the Divine Nature Heaven is not a thing without us nor is Happiness any thing distinct from a true Conjunction of the Mind with God in a secret feeling of his Goodness and reciprocation of affection to him wherein the Divine Glory most unfolds it self And there is nothing that a Soul touch'd with any serious sense of God can more earnestly thirst after or seek with more strength of affection then This. Then shall we be happy when God comes to be all in all in us To love God above our selves is not indeed so properly to love him above the salvation of our Souls as if these were distinct things but it is to love him above all our own sinfull affections above our particular Beings and to conform our selves to him And as that which is Good relatively and in order to us is so much the Better by how much the more it is commensurate and conformed to us So on the other side that which is good absolutely and essentially requires that our Minds and Affections should as far as may be be commensurate and conform'd to it and herein is God most glorified and we made Happy As we cannot truly love the First and Highest Good while we serve a designe upon it and subordinate it to our selves so neither is our own Salvation consistent with any such sordid pinching and particular love We cannot be compleatly blessed till the Idea Boni or the Ipsum Bonum which is God exercise its Soveraignty over all the Faculties of our Souls rendring them as like to it self as may consist with their proper Capacity See more of this in the Discourse Of the Existence and Nature of God Chap. 4. and more largely in that Latine Discourse shortly to be printed Pietati studere ex intuitu mercedis non est illicitum CHAP. VI. The Fourth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it begets the greatest Serenity and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the purest and most satisfying Joy and Pleasure to every holy Soul God as being that Uniform Chief Good and the One Last End does attract and fix the Soul Wicked men distracted through a Multiplicity of Objects and Ends. How the restless appetite of our Wills after some Supreme Good leads to the knowledge as of a Deity so of the Unity of a Deity How the Joys and Delights of Good men differ from and far excell those of the Wicked The Constancy and Tranquillity of the Spirits of Good men in reference to External troubles All Perturbations of the Mind arise from an Inward rather then an Outward Cause The Stoicks Method for attaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and true rest examined and the Insufficiency of it discovered A further Illustration of what has been said concerning the Peacefull and Happy State of Good men from the contrary State of the Wicked THe Fourth Property Effect of True Religion wherein it expresseth its own Nobleness is this That it begets the greatest Serenity Constancy and Composedness of Mind and brings the truest Contentment the most satisfying Joy and Pleasure the purest and most divine Sweetness and Pleasure to the Spirits of Good men Every Good man in whom Religion rules is at peace and unity with himself is as a City compacted together Grace doth more and more reduce all the Faculties of the Soul into a perfect Subjection and Subordination to it self The Union and Conjunction of the Soul with God that Primitive Unity is that which is the alone Original and Fountain of all Peace and the Centre of Rest as the further any Being slides from God the more it breaks into discords within it self as not having any Centre within it self which might collect and unite all the Faculties thereof to it self and so knit them up together in a sweet confederacy amongst themselves God only is such an Almighty Goodness as can attract all the Powers in man's Soul to it self as being an Object transcendently adequate to the largest capacities of any created Being and so unite man perfectly to himself in the true enjoyment of one Uniform and Simple Good It must be one Last End and Supreme Good that can fix Man's Mind which otherwise will be tossed up and down in perpetual uncertainties and become as many several things as those poor Particularities are which it meets with A wicked man's life is so distracted by a Multiplicity of Ends and Objects that it never is nor can be consistent to it self nor continue in any composed settled frame it is the most intricate irregular and confused thing in the world no one part of it agreeing with another because the whole is not firmly knit together by the power of some One Last End running through all Whereas the life of a Good man is under the sweet command of one Supreme Goodness and Last End This alone is that living Form and Soul which running through all the Powers of the Mind and Actions of Life collects all together into one fair and beautifull System making all that Variety conspire into perfect Unity whereas else all would fall asunder like the Members of a dead Body when once the Soul is gone every little particle flitting each from other It was a good Maxim of Pythagoras quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oportet etiam hominem unum fieri A divided Mind and a Multiform Life speaks the greatest disparagement that may be it is only the intermediation of One Last End that can reconcile a man perfectly to himself and his
own happiness This is the best temper and composedness of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus speaks when by a Conjunction with One Chief Good and Last End it is drawn up into an Unity and Consent with it self when all the Faculties of the Soul with their several issues and motions though never so many in themselves like so many lines meet together in one and the same Centre It is not one and the same Goodness that alwaies acts the Faculties of a Wicked man but as many several images and pictures of Goodness as a quick and working Fancy can represent to him which so divide his affections that he is no One thing within himself but tossed hither and thither by the most independent Principles Imaginations that may be But a Good man hath singled out the Supreme Goodness which by an Omnipotent sweetness draws all his affections after it and so makes them all with the greatest complacency conspire together in the pursuit and embraces of it Were there not some Infinite and Self-sufficient Goodness and that perfectly One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Simplicius doth phrase it Man would be a most miserably-distracted creature As the restless appetite within Man after some Infinite and Soveraign Good without the enjoyment of which it could never be satisfied does commend unto us the Notion of a Deity so the perpetnal distractions and divisions that would arise in the Soul upon a Plurality of Deities may seem no less to evince the Unity of that Deity Were not this Chief Good perfectly One were there any other equal to it man's Soul would hang in aequilibrio equally poised equally desiring the enjoyment of both but moving to neither like a piece of Iron between two Loadstones of equal virtue But when Religion enters into the Soul it charms all its restless rage and violent appetite by discovering to it the Universal Fountain-fulness of One Supreme Almighty Goodness and leading it out of it self into a conjunction therewith it lulls it into the most undisturbed rest and quietness in the lap of Divine enjoyment where it meets with full contentment and rests adequately satisfied in the fruition of the Infinite Uniform and Essential Goodness and Loveliness the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a noble Philosopher doth well express it The Peace which a Religious Soul is possessed of is such a Peace as passeth all understanding the Joy that it meets with in the ways of Holiness is unspeakable and full of Glory The Delights and Sweetnesses that accompany a Religious life are of a purer and more excellent Nature then the Pleasures of Worldly men The Spirit of a Good man is a more pure and refined thing then to delight it self in the thick mire of Earthly and Sensual pleasures which Carnal men rowle and tumble themselves in with so much greediness Non admittit ad volatum Accipitrem suum in terra pulverulenta as the Arabick Proverb hath it It speaks the degeneration of any Soul whatsoever that it should desire to incorporate it self with any of the gross dreggy sensual delights here below But a Soul purified Religion from all Earthly dreggs delights to mingle it self only with things that are most Divine and Spiritual There is nothing that can beget any pleasure or sweetness but in some harmonical Faculty which hath some kindred and acquaintance with it As it is in the Senses so in every other Faculty there is such a Natural kind of Science as whereby it can single out its own proper Object from every thing else and is better able to define it to it self then the exactest Artist in the world can and when once it hath found it out it presently feels it self so perfectly fitted and matched by it that it dissolves into secret joy and pleasure in the entertainment of it True Delight and Joy is begotten by the conjunction of some discerning Faculty with its proper Object The proper Object for a Mind and Spirit are Divine and Immaterial things with which it hath the greatest affinity and therefore triumphs most in its converse with them as it is well observed by Seneca Hoc habet argumentum divinitatis suae quòd illum divina delectant nec ut alienis interest sed ut suis and when it converseth most with these high and noble Objects it behaves it self most gracefully and lives most becoming it self and it lives also most deliciously nor can it any where else be better provided for or indeed fare so well A Good man disdains to be beholding to the Wit or Art or Industry of any Creature to find him out and bring him in a constant revenue and maintenance for his Joy and Pleasure the language of his Heart is that of the Psalmist Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Religion alwaies carries a sufficient Provision of Joy and Sweetness along with it to maintain it self withall All the ways of Wisdom are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Religion is no sullen Stoicisme or oppressing Melancholie it is no enthralling tyranny exercised over those noble and vivacious affections of Love and Delight as those men that were never acquainted with the life of it may imagine but it is full of a vigorous and masculine delight and joy such as advanceth and ennobles the Soul and does not weaken or dispirit the life and power of it as Sensual and Earthly joys doe when the Soul unacquainted with Religion is enforc'd to give entertainment to these gross earthly things for the want of enjoyment of some better Good The Spirit of a Good man may justly behave it self with a noble disdain to all Terrene pleasures because it knows where to mend its fare it is the same Almighty and Eternal Goodness which is the Happiness of God and of all Good men The truly-religious Soul affects nothing primarily and fundamentally but God himself his contentment even in the midst of his Worldly employments is in the Sun of the Divine favour that shines upon him this is as the Manna that lies upon the top of all outward blessings which his Spirit gathers up and feeds upon with delight Religion consists not in a toilesome drudgery about some Bodily exercises and External performances nor is it onely the spending of our selves in such attendances upon God and services to him as are onely accommodated to this life though every employment for God is both amiable and honourable But there is something of our Religion that interests us in a present possession of that joy which is unspeakable and glorious which leads us into the Porch of heaven and to the confines of Eternity It sometimes carries up the Soul into a mount of Transfiguration or to the top of Pisgah where it may take a prospect of the promised land and gives it a Map or Scheme of its future inheritance it gives it sometimes some anticipations of
Blessedness some foretasts of those joys those rivers of pleasure which run at God's right hand for evermore I might further add as a Mantissa to this present Argument the Tranquillity and Composedness of a Good man's spirit in reference to all External molestations Religion having made a through-pacification of the Soul within it self renders it impregnable to all outward assaults So that it is at rest and lives securely in the midst of all those boysterous Storms and Tempests that make such violent impressions upon the spirits of wicked men Here the Stoicks have stated the case aright That all Perturbations of the Mind arise not properly from an Outward but an Inward cause it is not any outward Evil but an inward imagination bred in the womb of the Soul it self that molests and grieves it The more that the Soul is restored to it self and lives at the height of it's own Being the more easily may it disdain and despise any design or combination against it by the most blustering Giants in the world A Christian that enjoys himself in God will not be beholding to the worlds fair and gentle usage for the composedness of his mind No he enjoys that Peace and Tranquillity within himself which no creature can bestow upon him or take from him But the Stoicks were not so happy in their notions about the way to true Rest and Composedness of Spirit It is not by their leave the Souls collecting and gathering up it self within the Circumference of it's own Essence nor is it a rigid restraining and keeping in its own issues and motions within the confines of its own natural endowments which is able to conferre upon it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Composedness of mind which they so much idolize as the supreme and onely bliss of man and render it free from all kind of perturbations For by what we find in Seneca and others it appears that the Stoicks seeking an Autarchy within themselves and being loth to be beholden to God for their Happiness but that each of them might be as God self-sufficient and happy in the enjoyment of himself endeavoured by their sour doctrine and a rigid discipline over their Souls their severities against Passions and all those restless motions in the Soul after some Higher Good to attain a complete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a full contentment within themselves But herein they mistof the true method of finding Rest to themselves it being the Union of the Soul with God that Uniform Simple and unbounded Good which is the sole Original of all true inward Peace Neither were it an Happiness worth the having for a Mind like an Hermite sequestred from all things else by a recession into it self to spend an Eternity in self-converse and the enjoyment of such a Diminutive superficial Nothing as it self is and must necessarily be to it self It is onely peculiar to God to be happy in himself alone and God who has been more liberal in his provisions for man hath created in man such a spring of restless motion that with the greatest impatiency forceth him out of himself and violently tosseth him to and fro till he come to fix himself upon some solid and Self-subsistent Goodness Could a man find himself withdrawn from all terrene and Material things and perfectly retired into himself were the whole World so quiet and calme about him as not to offer to make the least attempt upon the composedness and constancy of his Mind might he be so well entertain'd at his own home as to find no frowns no sour looks from his own Conscience might he have that security from Heaven that God would not disquiet his fancied Tranquillity by embittering his thoughts with any dreadful apprehensions yet he should find something within him that would not let him be at rest but would rend him from himself toss him from his own foundation consistency There is an insatiable appetite in the Soul of man like a greedy Lion hunting after his prey that would render him impatient of his own pinching penury could never satisfy it self with such a thin and spare diet as he finds at home There are Two principall faculties in the Soul which like the two daughters of the Horsleach are always crying Give Give these are those hungry Vultures which if they cannot find their prey abroad return and gnaw the Soul it self where the carkasse is there will the Eagles be gathered together By this we may see how unavailable to the attaining of true Rest and Peace that conceit of the Stoicks was who supposed the onely way and method hereto was this To confine the Soul thus Monastically to its own home We read in the Gospel of such a Question of our Saviour's What went you out into the wilderness to see we may invert it What do you return within to see A Soul confined within the private and narrow cell of its own particular Being Such a Soul deprives it self of all that Almighty and Essential Glory and Goodness which shines round about it which spreads it self through the whole universe I say it deprives it self of all this for the enjoying of such a poor petty and diminutive thing as it self is which yet it can never enjoy truly in such a retiredness We have seen the Peacefull and Happy state of the truly-religious But it is otherwise with wicked and irreligious men There is no peace to the wicked but they are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt as it is exprest by the Prophet Esay The mind of a wicked man is like the Sea when it roares and rages through the striving of severall contrary winds upon it Furious lusts and wild passions within as they warre against Heaven and the more noble and divine part of the Soul so they warr amongst themselves maintaining perpetuall contests contending which shall be the greatest Scelera dissident These indeed are the Cadmus-brood rising out of the Serpent's teeth ready arm'd one against another whence it is that the Soul of a wicked man becomes a very unhabitable and incommodious place to it self full of disquietness and trouble through the many contests and civil commotious maintained within it The minds of wicked men are like those disconsolate and desolate spirits which our Saviour speaks of Matth. 12. which being cast out of their habitation wander up and down through dry and desert places seeking rest but finding none The Soul that finds not some solid and self-sufficient Good to centre it self upon is a boisterous and restless thing and being without God it wanders up and down the world destitute afflicted tormented with vehement hunger and thirst after some satisfying Good and as any one shall bring it tidings Lo here or Lo there is Good it presently goes out towards it and with a swift and speedy flight hastens after it The sense of an inward indigency doth stimulate and enforce it to seek its
correspondent to his own nature The ancient superstition of the Heathens was always very nice and curious in honouring every one of their Gods with Sacrifices and Rites most agreeable to their natures I am sure there is no Incense no offering we can present God with is so sweet so acceptable to him as our Love and Delight and Confidence in him and when he comes into the Souls of men he makes these his Throne his place of rest as finding the greatest agreeableness therein to his own Essence A Good man that finds himself made partaker of the Divine nature and transform'd into the image of God infinitely takes pleasure in God as being altogether Lovely according to that in Cant. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Totus ipse est desideria and his Meditation of God is sweet unto him Ps. 104. S. John that lay in the bosome of Christ who came from the bosome of the Father and perfectly understood his Eternal Essence hath given us the fullest description that he could make of him when he tells us that God is Love and he that dwells in God dwells in love and reposing himself in the bosome of an Almighty Goodness where he finds nothing but Love and Loveliness he now displays all the strength and beauty of those his choiest and most precious affections of Love and Joy and Confidence his Soul is now at ease and rests in peace neither is there any thing to make afraid He is got beyond all those powers of darknesse which give such continual alarms in this lower world and are always troubling the Earth He is got above all fears and despairs he is in a bright clear region above Clouds and Tempests infra se despicit nubes There is no frightful terribleness in the supreme Majesty That men apprehend God at any time in such a dismayed manner it must not at all be made an argument of his nature but of our sinfulness and weakness The Sun in the heavens always was and will be a Globe of Light and brightness howsoever a purblind Eye is rather dazled then enlightned by it There is an Inward sense in Mans Soul which were it once awaken'd and excited with an inward tast and relish of the Divinity could better define God to him then all the world else It is the sincere Christian that so tasts and sees how good and sweet the Lord is as none else does The God of hope fills him with all joy and peace in believing so that he abounds in hope as the Apostle speaks Rom. 15. He quietly reposes himself in God his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord he is more for a solid peace and setled calme of spirit then for high Raptures and feelings of Joy or Extraordinary Manifestations of God to him he does not passionately desire nor importunately expect such things he rather looks after the Manifestations of the Goodness and Power of God within him in subduing all in his Soul that is unlike and contrary to God and forming him into his image and likeness Though I think it worthy of a Christian to endeavour the Assurance of his own Salvation yet perhaps it might be the safest way to moderate his curiosity of prying into God's Book of life and to stay a while untill he sees himself within the confines of Salvation it self Should a man hear a Voice from Heaven or see a Vision from the Almighty to testify unto him the Love of God towards him yet methinks it were more desireable to find a Revelation of all from within arising up from the Bottome and Centre of a mans own Soul in the Reall and Internal impressions of a Godlike nature upon his own spirit and thus to find the Foundation and Beginning of Heaven and Happiness within himself it were more desirable to see the crucifying of our own Will the mortifying of the mere Animal life and to see a Divine life rising up in the room of it as a sure Pledge and Inchoation of Immortality and Happiness the very Essence of which consists in a perfect conformity and chearfull complyance of all the Powers of our Souls with the Will of God The best way of gaining a well-grounded assurance of the Divine love is this for a man to overcome himself and his own Will To him that overcomes shall be given that white stone and in it the new name written which no man knoweth but he that receives it He that beholds the Sun of righteousness arising upon the Horizon of his Soul with healing in its wings and chasing away all that misty darkness of his own Self-will and Passions such a one desires not now the Starr-light to know whether it be Day or not nor cares he to pry into Heaven's secrets and to search into the hidden rolles of Eternity there to see the whole plot of his Salvation for he views it transacted upon the inward stage of his own Soul and reflecting upon himself he may behold a Heaven opened from within and a Throne set up in his Soul and an Almighty Saviour sitting upon it and reigning within him he now finds the Kingdome of Heaven within him and sees that it is not a thing merely reserved for him without him being already made partaker of the sweetnesse and efficacy of it What the Jewes say of the Spirit of Prophesy may not unfitly be applyed to the Holy Ghost the true Comforter dwelling in the minds of good men as a sure Earnest of their Eternal inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit resides not but upon a man of Fortitude one that gives proof of this Fortitude in subduing his own Self-will and his Affections We read of Elisha that he was fain to call for a Musical instrument and one to play before him to allay the heat of his Passions before he could converse with the Prophetical Spirit The Hely Spirit is too pure and gentle a thing to dwell in a Mind muddied and disturb'd by those impure dreggs those thick fogs and mists that arise from our Self-will and Passions our prevailing over these is the best way to cherish the Holy Spirit by which we may be sealed unto the day of redemption To conclude this Particular It is a venturous and rugged guess and conceit which some men have That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to the Divine will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the Subject of Eternal Wrath in Hell if it should so please God Which is as impossible as it is for him that infinitely thirsts after a true Participation of the Divine Nature and most earnestly endeavours a most inward Union with God in Spirit by a denial of himself and his own will to swell up in Self-love Pride and Arrogancy against God the one whereof is the most substantial Heaven the other the most real Hell whereas indeed by conquering our selves we are translated from Death to Life and the kingdom of God and Heaven is
already come into us CHAP. VIII The Sixth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it Spiritualizes Material things and carries up the Souls of Good men from Sensible and Earthly things to things Intellectual and Divine There are lesser and fuller representations of God in the Creatures To converse with God in the Creation and to pass out of the Sensible World into the Intellectual is most effectually taught by Religion Wicked men converse not with God as shining out in the Creatures they converse with them in a Sensual and Unspiritual manner Religion does spiritualize the Creation to Good men it teaches them to look at any Perfections or Excellencies in themselves and others not so much as Theirs or That others but as so many Beams flowing from One and the Same Fountain of Light to love them all in God and God in all the Universal Goodness in a Particular Being A Good man enjoys and delights in whatsoever Good he sees otherwhere as if it were his own he does not fondly love and esteem either himself or others The Divine temper and strain of the antient Philosophy THE Sixth Property or Effect wherein Religion discovers its own Excellency is this That it Spiritualizes Material things and so carries up the Souls of Good men from Earthly things to things Divine from this Sensible World to the Intellectual God made the Universe and all the Creatures contained therein as so many Glasses wherein he might reflect his own Glory He hath copied forth himself in the Creation and in this Outward World we may read the lovely characters of the Divine Goodness Power and Wisdom In some Creatures there are darker representations of God there are the Prints and Footsteps of God but in others there are clearer and fuller representations of the Divinity the Face and Image of God according to that known saying of the Schoolmen Remotiores Similitudines Creaturae ad Deum dicuntur Vestigium propinquiores verò Imago But how to find God here and feelingly to converse with him and being affected with the sense of the Divine Glory shining out upon the Creation how to pass out of the Sensible World into the Intellectual is not so effectually taught by that Philosophy which profess'd it most as by true Religion that which knits and unites God and the Soul together can best teach it how to ascend and descend upon those golden links that unite as it were the World to God That Divine Wisdome that contrived and beautified this glorious Structure can best explain her own Art and carry up the Soul back again in these reflected Beams to him who is the Fountain of them Though Good men all of them are not acquainted with all those Philosophical notions touching the relation between Created and the Uncreated Being yet may they easily find every Creature pointing out to that Being whose image and superscription it bears and climb up from those darker resemblances of the Divine Wisdome and Goodness shining out in different degrees upon several Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Antients speak till they sweetly repose themselves in the bosom of the Divinity and while they are thus conversing with this lower World and are viewing the invisible things of God in the things that are made in this visible and outward Creation they find God many times secretly flowing into their Souls and leading them silently out of the Court of the Temple into the Holy Place But it is otherwise with Wicked men they dwell perpetually upon the dark side of the Creatures and converse with these things only in a gross sensual earthly and unspiritual manner they are so encompass'd with the thick and foggy mist of their own Corruptions that they cannot see God there where he is most visible the Light shineth in darkness but darkness comprehends it not their Souls are so deeply sunk into that House of Clay which they carry about with them that were there nothing of Body or bulky Matter before them they could find nothing to exercise themselves about But Religion where it is in truth and in power renews the very Spirit of our Minds and doth in a manner Spiritualize this outward Creation to us and doth in a more excellent way perform that which the Peripateticks are wont to affirm of their Intellectus agens in purging Bodily and Material things from the feculency and dregs of Matter and separating them from those circumstantiating and streightning conditions of Time and Place and the like and teaches the Soul to look at those Perfections which it finds here below not so much as the Perfections of This or That Body as they adorn This or That particular Being but as they are so many Rays issuing forth from that First and Essential Perfection in which they all meet and embrace one another in the most close friendship Every Particular Good is a Blossom of the First Goodness every created Excellency is a Beam descending from the Father of lights and should we separate all these Particularities from God all affection spent upon them would be unchast and their embraces adulterous We should love all things in God and God in all things because he is All in all the Beginning and Original of Being the perfect Idea of their Goodness and the End of their Motion It is nothing but a thick mist of Pride and Self-love that hinders mens eyes from beholding that Sun which both enlightens them and all things else But when true Religion begins once to dawn upon mens Souls and with its shining light chases away their black Night of Ignorance then they behold themselves and all things else enlightned though in a different way by one and the same Sun and all the Powers of their Souls fall down before God and ascribe all glory to him Now it is that a Good man is no more solicitous whether This or That good thing be Mine or whether My perfections exceed the measure of This or That particular Creature for whatsoever Good he beholds any where he enjoys and delights in it as much as if it were his own and whatever he beholds in himself he looks not upon it as his Property but as a Common good for all these Beams come from one and the same Fountain and Ocean of light in whom he loves them all with an Universal love when his affections run along the stream of any created excellencies whether his own or any ones else yet they stay not here but run on till they fall into the Ocean they do not settle into a fond love and admiration either of himself or any others Excellencies but he owns them as so many Pure Effluxes and Emanations from God and in a Particular Being loves the Universal Goodness Si sciretur à me Veritas sciretur etiam me illud non esse aut illud non esse meum nec à me Thus may a Good man walk up and down the World as in a Garden of Spices
and suck a Divine Sweetness out of every flower There is a Twofold meaning in every Creature as the Jews speak of their Law a Literal and a Mystical and the one is but the ground of the other and as they say of divers pieces of their Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so a Good man sayes of every thing that his Senses offer to him it speaks to his lower part but it points out something above to his Mind and Spirit It is the drowsie and muddy spirit of Superstition which being lull'd asleep in the lap of worldly delights is fain to set some Idol at its elbow something that may jogg it and put it in mind of God Whereas true Religion never finds it self out of the Infinite Sphere of the Divinity and whereever it finds Beauty Harmony Goodness Love Ingenuity Wisdome Holiness Justice and the like it is ready to say Here and There is God wheresoever any such Perfections shine out an holy Mind climbs up by these Sun-beams and raises up it self to God And seeing God hath never thrown the World from himself but runs through all created Essence containing the Archetypal Ideas of all things in himself and from thence deriving and imparting several prints of Beauty and Excellency all the world over a Soul that is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-like a Mind that is enlightned from the same Fountain and hath its inward Senses affected with the sweet relishes of Divine Goodness cannot but every where behold it self in the midst of that Glorious Unbounded Being who is indivisibly every where A Good man finds every place he treads upon Holy ground to him the World is God's Temple he is ready to say with Jacob Gen. 28. How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the House of God To conclude It was a degenerous and unworthy Spirit in that Philosophy which first separated and made such distances between Metaphysical Truths the Truths of Nature whereas the First and most antient Wisdome amongst the Heathens was indeed a Philosophical Divinity or a Divine Philosophy which continued for divers ages but as men grew worse their queazy stomachs began to loath it which made the truly-wise Socrates complain of the Sophisters of that Age which began now to corrupt and debase it whereas heretofore the Spirit of Philosophy was more generous and divine and did more purifie and ennoble the Souls of men commending Intellectual things to them and taking them off from settling upon Sensible and Material things here below and still exciting them to endeavour after the nearest resemblance of God the Supreme Goodness and Loveliness and an intimate Conjunction with him which according to the strain of that Philosophy was the true Happiness of Immortal Souls CHAP. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence THE Seventh and last Property or Effect wherein True Religion expresseth its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it Wheresoever God hath a Tongue to speak there they have Eares to hear and being attentive to God in the soft and still motions of Providence they are ready to obey his call and to say with Esay Behold here am I send me They endeavour to copy forth that Lesson which Christ hath set Christians seriously considering how that they came into this world by God's appointment not to doe their own Wills but the Will of him that sent them As this Consideration quiets the Spirit of a Good man who is no idle Spectator of Providence and keeps him in a calm and sober temper in the midst of all Storms and Tempests so it makes him most freely to engage himself in the service of Providence without any inward reluctancy or disturbance He cannot be content that Providence should serve it self of him as it doth even of those things that understand it least but it is his holy ambition to serve it 'T is nothing else but Hellish pride and Self-love that makes men serve themselves and so set up themselves as Idols against God But it is indeed an argument of true Nobleness of Spirit for a man to view himself not in the narrow Point of his own Being but in the unbounded Essence of the First Cause so as to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to live only as an Instrument in the hands of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Optarem id me esse Deo quod est mihi manus mea was the expression of an holy Soul To a Good man to serve the Will of God it is in the truest and best sense to serve himself who knows himself to be nothing without or in opposition to God Quò minùs quid sibi arrogat homo eò evadit nobilior clarior divinior This is the most divine life that can be for a man to act in the world upon Eternal designes and to be so wholy devoted to the Will of God as to serve it most faithfully and entirely This indeed bestows a kind of Immortality upon these flitting and Transient acts of ours which in themselves are but the Off-spring of a moment A Pillar or Verse is a poor sorry Monument of any Exploit which yet may well enough become the highest of the worlds bravery But Good men while they work with God and endeavour to bring themselves and all their actions to a unity with God his Ends and Designs enroll themselves in Eternity This is the proper Character of holy Souls Their Wills are so fully resolv'd into the Divine Will that they in all things subscribe to it without any murmurings or debates they rest well satisfied with and take complacency in any passages of Divine dispensation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being ordered and disposed by a Mind and Wisedome above according to the highest rules of Goodness The best way for a man rightly to enjoy himself is to maintain an universal ready and chearfull complyance with the Divine and Uncreated Will in all things as knowing that nothing can issue and
flow forth from the fountain of Goodness but that which is good and therefore a Good man is never offended with any piece of Divine dispensation nor hath he any reluctancy against that Will that dictates and determines all things by an Eternal rule of Goodness as knowing That there is an unbounded and Almighty Love that without any disdain or envy freely communicates it self to every thing he made that feeds even the young Ravens that call upon him that makes his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall both upon the just and unjust that always enfolds those in his everlasting armes who are made partakers of his own Image perpetually nourishing and cherishing them with the fresh and vital influences of his Grace as knowing also That there is an All-seeing Eye an unbounded Mind and Understanding that derives it self through the whole Universe and sitting in all the wheels of motion guides them all and powerfully governs the most excentrical motions of Creatures and carries them all most harmoniously in their several orbes to one Last End Who then shall give Law to God Where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world Where is he that would climb up into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Consistory in heaven and sitting in consultation with the Almighty instruct the Infinite and Incomprehensible Wisedome Shall vain man be wiser then his maker This is the hellish temper of wicked men they examine and judge of all things by the line and measure of their own Self-will their own Opinions and Designes and measuring all things by a crooked rule they think nothing to be straight and therefore they fall out with God and with restless impatience fret and vex themselves and this fretfulness and impatiency in wicked men argues a breach in the just and due constitution of their Minds and Spirits But a Good man whose Soul is restored to that frame and constitution it should be in has better apprehensions of the ways and works of God and is better affected under the various disposalls of Providence Indeed to a superficial observer of Divine Providence many things there are that seem to be nothing else but Digressions from the main End of all and to come to pass by a fortuitous concourse of Circumstances that come in so abruptly and without any concatenation or dependance one upon another as if they were without any Mind or Understanding to guide them But a wise man that looks from the Beginning to the End of things beholds them all in their due place and method acting that part which the Supreme Mind and Wisedome that governs all things hath appointed them and to carry on one and the same Eternal designe while they move according to their own proper inclinations and measures and aime at their own particular Ends. It were not worth the while to live in a world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devoid of God and Providence as it was well observ'd by the Stolck And to be subservient unto Providence is the holy ambition and great endeavour of a Good man who is so perfectly overpower'd with the love of the Universal and Infinite Goodness that he would not serve any Particular Good whatsoever no not himself so as to set up in the world and trade for himself as the men of this world doe who are lovers of their own selves and lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God CHAP. X. 4. The Excellency of Religion in regard of its Progress as it is perpetually carrying on the Soul towards Perfection Every Nature hath its proper Centre which it hastens to Sin and Wickedness is within the attractive power of Hell and hastens thither Grace and Holiness is within the Central force of Heaven and moves thither 'T is not the Speculation of Heaven as a thing to come that satisfyes the desires of Religious Souls but the reall Possession of it even in this life Men are apt to seek after Assurance of Heaven as a thing to come rather then after Heaven it self and the inward possession of it here How the Assurance of Heaven rises from the growth of Holinesse and the powerful Progresse of Religion in our Souls That we are not hastily to believe that we are Christ's or that Christ is in us That the Works which Christ does in holy Souls testify of him and best evidence Christ's spiritual appearance in them WE have consider'd the Excellency of True Religion 1. in regard of its Descent and Original 2. in regard of its Nature 3. in regard of its Properties and Effects We proceed now to a Fourth Particular and shall shew That Religion is a generous and noble thing in regard of its Progresse it is perpetually carrying on that Mind in which it is once seated toward Perfection Though the First appearance of it upon the Souls of good men may be but as the Wings of the Morning spreading themselves upon the Mountains yet it is still rising higher and higher upon them chasing away all the filthy mists and vapours of Sin and Wickedness before it till it arrives to its Meridian altitude There is the strength and force of the Divinity in it and though when it first enters into the Minds of men it may seem to be sowen in weakness yet it will raise it self in power As Christ was in his Bodily appearance he was still increasing in wisedome and knowledge and favour with God and man untill he was perfected in glory so is he also in his Spiritual appearance in the Souls of men and accordingly the New Testament does more then once distinguish of Christ in his several ages and degrees of growth in the Souls of all true Christians Good men are always walking on from strength to strength till at last they see God in Zion Religion though it hath its infancy yet it hath no old age while it is in its Minority it is always in motu but when it comes to its Maturity and full age it will always be in quiete it is then always the same and its years fail not but it shall endure for ever Holy and religious Souls being once toucht with an inward sense of Divine Beauty and Goodness by a strong impress upon them are moved swiftly after God and as the Apostle expresses himself forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before they presse toward the Mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that so they may attain to the resurrection of the dead Where a Spirit of Religion is there is the Central force of Heaven it self quickening and enlivening those that are informed by it in their motions toward Heaven As on the other side all unhallowed and defiled minds are within the attractive power of Hell are continually hastening their course thither being strongly pressed down by the weight of their Wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch hath
correspondence and converse with the Devil The Fears and Horrors which infest both the Apostate Spirits and Wicked men The weakness of the Devil's kingdom Christ's success against it IT Hath been an antient Tradition received by the Gentile Philosophers That there are Two main Principles that spend and spread their influence through the whole Universe The one they call'd The Principle of Good the other they call'd The Principle of Evil and that these Two maintain a continual contest and enmity the one with the other The Principle of Goodness which is nothing else but God himself who derived himself in clear and lovely stamps and impressions of Beauty and Goodness through the whole Creation endeavours still to assimilate and unite it to himself And on the other side The Principle of Evil the Prince of darkness having once stained the Original beauty and glory of the Divine workmanship is continually striving to mold and shape it more and more into his own likeness And as there is such a perpetual and active Enmity between God and the Evil Spirit so whatsoever is from God is perpetually opposing and warring against that which arises from the Devil The Divine Goodness hath put enmity between whatsoever is born of him or flowes forth from it self and the Seed of the Serpent As at the beginning he divided between the Night and the Day between Light and Darkness so that they can never intermingle or comply one with another or be reconciled one to the other so neither can those Beams of Divine light and love which descend from God upon the Souls of men be ever reconciled to those foul and filthy Mists of Sin and Darkness which ascend out of the bottomless pit of Hell and Death That Spirit is not from God who is the Father of lights and in whom there is no darkness as the Apostle speaks which endeavours to compound with Hell and to accommodate between God and the Devil God himself hath set the bounds to darkness and the shadow of death Divine Truth and Goodness cannot contract themselves with any thing that is from Hell or espouse themselves to any Brat of darkness as it was set forth in the Emblem under the Old Law where none of the Holy seed might marry with the people of any strange God Though that Rule Touch not tast not handle not be abolished in the Symbolical rites yet it hath an immutable Mystery in it not subject to the laws or changes of Time He that will entertain any correspondence with the Devil or receive upon his Soul his Image or the number of his name must first devest and strip himself of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness within him He must transform his Mind into the true likeness and similitude of those foul Fiends of darkness and abandon all relation to the Highest and Supremest Good And yet though some men endeavour to doe this and to smother all those Impressions of Light and Reason which God hath folded up in every mans Being and destroy all that which is from God within them that so they may reconcile themselves to Sin and Hell yet can they never make any just peace with them There is no peace to the wicked but they are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Those Evil spirits are alwaies turbulent and restless and though they maintain continually a War with God and his kingdom yet are they alwaies making disquietings and disturbances in their own kingdom and the more they contest with God and are deprived of him the more full are they of horror and tumultuous commotions within Nothing can stand firm and sure nothing can have any true and quiet establishment that hath not the Everlasting arms of true Goodness under it to support it And as those that deliver over themselves most to the Devil's pleasure and devote themselves to his service cannot doe it without a secret inward Antipathy against him or dreadful thoughts of him so neither can those impure spirits stand before the Divine glory but being filled with trembling and horror continually endeavour to hide themselves from it and flee away before it as the Darkness flies away before the Light And according as God hath in any Places in any Ages of the world made any manifestations of himself to men so have those Evil spirits been vanquished and forced to quit their former Territories as is especially very observable in the ceasing of all the Graecian Oracles soon after the Gospel was promulged in those parts when those desolate spirits with horrid and dismal groans resigned up their habitations as Plutarch hath recorded of them Our Saviour hath found by good experience how weak a thing the Devil's kingdome is when he spoiled all the Principalities and Powers of darkness and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in or by it that is his Crosse as the Apostle speaks and if we will resolutely follow the Captain of our salvation and fight under his banner as good souldiers of Jesus Christ we have full security given us for the same successe Resist the Devil and he will flee from you CHAP. II. The First observable That the Devil is continually busie with us The Devil consider'd under a double notion 1. As an Apostate Spirit which fell from God The great danger of the Devil's activity not onely when he presents himself in some corporeal shape but when he is unseen and appears not The weakness and folly of those who are afraid of him onely when he appears embodyed That the Good Spirit of God is active for the Good of Souls How regardless men are of the gentle motions of the Divine Spirit and how unwatchfull and secure under the Suggestions of the Evil Spirit How we may discover the Devil in his Stratagems and under his several disguises and appearances IN these words Resist the Devil and he will flee from you we shall take notice First of what is evidently implied viz. That the Devil is continually busy with us This may be considered under a double notion 1. By the Devil we are to understand that Apostate Spirit which fell from God and is always designing to hale down others from God also The old Dragon mentioned in the Revelation with his tail drew down the third part of the Stars of heaven and cast them to the Earth As true Goodness is not content to be happy alone so neither can Sin and Wickedness be content to be miserable alone The Evil Spirit told God himself what his imployment was viz. To goe to and fro in the earth and to walk up and down in it he is always walking up and down through dry places where no Divine influences fall to water it as our Saviour speaks seeking rest though always restlesse The Philosophy of the Antients hath observed That every man that comes into this world hath a good and an evil Genius attending upon him
degenerate and depraved nature Could the Devil change his foul and impure nature he would neither be a Devil nor miserable and so long as any man carries about him a sinfull and corrupt nature he can neither be in perfect favour with God nor blessed Wickedness is the Form and Entelech of all the wicked spirits it is the difference of a name rather then any proper difference of natures that is between the Devil and Wicked men Wheresoever we see Malice Revenge Pride Envy Hatred Self-will and Self-love we may say Here and There is that Evil spirit This indeed is that Venenum Serpentis the poyson and sting too of that Diabolical nature As the Kingdome of Heaven is not so much without men as within as our Saviour tells us so the Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is not so much in some External things as in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds And as the enjoying of God and conversing with him consists not so much in a change of place as in the participation of the Divine nature and in our assimilation unto God so our conversing with the Devil is not so much by a mutual local presence as by an imitation of a wicked and sinful nature derived upon mens own Souls Therefore the Jews were wont to stile that Original pravity that is lodged in mens spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel of death and fiend of darkness Those filthy Lusts and Corruptions which men foment and entertain in their Minds they are the noisome Vapours that ascend out of the bottomless pit they are the thick Mists and fogs of Hellish darkness arising in their Souls as a Preface and Introduction of Hell and Death within Where we find Uncleanness Intemperance Covetousness or any such impure or unhallowed behaviour we may say Here Satan's throne is This sinfull and corrupt nature being the true issue of Hell it self is continually dragging down mens Souls thither All Sin and Wickedness in man's Spirit hath the Central force and Energy of Hell in it and is perpetually pressing down towards it as towards its own place There needs no Fatal necessity or Astral impulses to tumble wicked men down forcibly into Hell No for Sin it self hastned by the mighty weight of its own nature carries them down thither with the most swift and headlong motion As they say of true Holiness and Christianity Christi sacrina pennas habet Christ's burden which is nothing else but true Godliness is a winged thing and bravely bears it self upwards upon its own wings soaring aloft towards God so we may say of all Impiety Diaboli sarcina pondus habet the Devilish nature is alwaies within the Central attractions of Hell and its own weight instigates and accelerates its motion thither He that allows himself in any sin or useth an unnatural dalliance with any vice does nothing else in reality then entertain an incubus Damon he prostitutes a wanton Soul and forceth it to commit lewdness with the Devil himself Sin is nothing better then a Brat of darkness and deformitie it hath no other extraction or pedigree then may be derived from those unclean spirits that are nestled in Hell All men in reality converse either with God or with the Devil and walk in the Confines either of Heaven or of Hell They have their fellowship either with the Father and the Son as S. John speaks or else with the Apostate and evil Angels I know these Expressions will seem to some very harsh and unwelcome But I would beseech them to consider what they will call that spirit of Malice and Envy that spirit of Pride Ambition Vain-glory Covetousness Injustice Uncleanness c. that commonly reigns so much and acts so violently in the Minds and Lives of men Let us speak the truth and call things by their own Names let us not flatter our selves or paint our filthy sores so much as there is of Sin in any man so much there is of the old man so much there is of the Diabolical nature Why do we defie the Devil so much with our Tongues while we entertain him in our Hearts But indeed men do but quarrel with him in the name and notion of him while yet their Hearts can readily comply with all that which the Devil is that Antipathy which is ordinarily expressed against him like those natural Antipathies which the Philosophers speak of being nothing else but Occult qualities or Natural instincts which as they arise not from any principle of Reason or Understanding so neither are they guided or governed by it As mens Love to God is ordinarily nothing else but the mere tendencie of their Natures to something that hath the notion or name of God put upon it without any clear or distinct apprehensions of him so their Hatred of the Devil is commonly nothing else but an inward displicency of nature against something entitled by the Devil's name Or else at best Corrupt minds do nothing else but fashion out a God and a Devil a Heaven and a Hell to themselves by the power of their own Fancies and so they are to them nothing else but their own Creatures sustained and supported by the force of their own Imaginations which first raised them And as they commonly make a God like to themselves such a one as they can best comply with and love so they make a Devil most unlike to themselves which may be any thing but what they themselves are that so they may most freely spend their Anger and Hatred upon him just as they say of some of the Ethiopians who use to paint the Devil white because they themselves are black This is a strange merry kind of Madness whereby men sportingly bereave themselves of the Supremest Good and insure themselves as much as may be to Hell and Misery They may thus cheat themselves for awhile but the Eternal foundation of the Divine Being is immutable and unchangeable God is but One and his Name One as the Prophet speaks howsoever the several Fancies of men may shape him out diversly and where we find Wisdome Justice Loveliness Goodness Love and Glory in their highest elevations and most unbounded dimensions That is He and where we find any true participations of these there is a true Communication of God and a defection from these is the Essence of Sin and the Foundation of Hell Now if this be rightly considered I hope there will an Argument strong enough appear from the Thing it self to enforce S. James his Exhortation Resist the Devil endeavour to mortifie and crucifie the Old man with all the corrupt lusts and affections of the Flesh. We never so truly hate Sin as when we hate it for its own Ugliness and deformity as we never love God so truly as when we love him for his own beauty and excellency If we calculate aright as we shall find nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him so neither shall we find any thing
so much a Thing without us as some men would seem to fansy it were we so dead and liveless as that we could never move but from an External impetus as our Religion could never indeed be called Ours so neither could we ever have the inward sense of that Bliss and Peace which goes along with it but must be like so many heavy loggs or dul pieces of Earth in Heaven and Happiness That is a very earthly and flat Spirit in Religion which sinks like the lees to the bottome or rather it is like that Terra damnata which the Chymists speak of having no vigour life or activity left in it is truly dead to God and is reprobate to any thing of Heaven We know the Pedigree of those Exhalations that arise no higher then a mere external force from the Sun's heat weigheth them up to be but base and earthly and therefore having no natural warmth or energy within themselves imparted to them they sink down again to the Earth from whence they came The Spirit which is from Heaven is alwaies out of an in-bred Nobleness which bears it up carried upwards again towards Heaven from whence it came powerfully resisting all things that would deprive it of God or hinder it from returning to its Original it is alwaies moving upwards in an even and steady way towards God from whence it came leaving the dark Regions of Hell and Death under it it resists Hell and Darkness by assimilating and conforming it self to God it resists Darkness in the armour of light it resists Death and destruction by the power of Divine love It must be something of Heaven in the Minds of men which must resist the Devil and Hell We do not alwaies resist the Devil then when we bid defiance to him or when we declame most zealously against him neither does our Resisting and Opposing of Sin and Wickedness consist in the violence of some Feminine passions which may sometimes be raised by the power of Fancy in the Minds of men against it But it consists rather in a mature and sedate resolution against it in our own Souls arising from a clear judgment of the foul and hatefull nature of Sin it self and him who is the Patron of it in a constant and serious endeavour of setling the government of our own Souls and establishing the principality of Grace and Peace within our selves There is a pompous and popular kind of tumult in the world which sometimes goes for Zeal to God and his kingdome against the Devil whenas mens own Pride and Passions disguise themselves under the notions of a Religious fervencie Some men think themselves the greatest Champions for God and his Cause when they can take the greatest liberty to quarrel with every thing abroad and without themselves which is not shaped according to the mould of their own Opinions their own Self-will Humour and Interest Whereas indeed this Spiritual warfare is not so much maintained against a forrein enemy as against those domestick rebellions that are within neither is it then carried on most successfully when men make the greatest noise and most of all raise the dust That impetuous violence and tempestuousness with which men are acted in pretensions of Religion arises ordinarily I doubt from unquiet and disturbed Minds within whereas it is indeed the inward conflicts and commotions sin and vice and not a holy zeal for God which discompose the Minds of men Sin where it is entertained will indeed breed disturbance and break the peace of a mans own spirit but a true resisting and opposing of it is the restoring of the Soul to its just Consistency Freedome and Serenity again As God's kingdome is set up so the Devil's kingdome may be pulled down without the noise of axes and hammers We may then attain to the greatest atchievements against the gates of Hell and Death when we most of all possesse our own Souls in patience collect our Minds into the most peacefull composed and united temper The motions of true Practical Religion are most like that of the Heavens which though most swift is yet most silent As Grace and true Religion is no lazy or sluggish thing but in perpetual motion so all the motions of it are soft and gentle While it acts most powerfully within it also acts most peacefully The kingdome of heaven comes not with observation that men may say Loe here or Loe there it is not with the devouring fire coming after it or a whirlwind going before it This fight and contest with Sin and Satan is not to be known by the ratling of the Chariots or the sound of an alarm it is indeed alone transacted upon the inner stage of mens souls and spirits and is rather a pacifying and quieting of all those riots and tumults raised there by Sin and Satan it is rather a reconciling the minds of men to Truth Justice and Holiness it is a captivating and subjecting all our Powers and Faculties to God and true Goodness through the effectual working of a divine Love and Humility and this Ressistance is always attended with Victory and Triumph warts upon this Fight which is the Third and last Observation we shall make upon these Words CHAP. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory to all those that resist the Devil This grounded upon 1. The Weakness of the Devil and Sin consider'd in themselves 2. God's powerfull assisting all faithful Christians in this warfare The Devil may allure and tempt but cannot prevail except men consent and yield to his suggestions The Devil's strength lies in mens treachery and falseness to their own Souls Sin is strong because men oppose it weakly The Errour of the Manichees about a Principium mali defended by men in their lives and practices Of God's readiness to assist Christians in their spiritual Consticts his Compassionate regards and the more special respects of his Providence towards them in such occasions The Conclusion discovering the Evil and Horridness of Magick Diabolical Contracts c. THe Certainty of Successe to all those that resist the Devil Resist the Devil and he will flee from you He cannot stand when opposed in the strength of God he will fall down as swift as lightning he cannot bear the glory of God shining in the Souls of men Here it is no more but Stand and Conquer Resist and Vanquish For First of all The Devil and Sin in themselves considered are but weak and impotent they cannot prevail over that Soul which yields not to them the Evil spirit then onely prevails over us when we our selves consent to his suggestions all his strength lies in our treachery and falseness to our own Souls Though those wicked spirits be perpetually so near us yet they cannot bow or bend our Wills there is a place of defence in the Souls of men into which they cannot enter they may stand at a distance allure and intice them but they cannot prevail over
so much good among all my Books by a whole days plodding in a Study as by an Houres discourse I have got with him For he was not a Library lock'd up nor a Book clasped but stood open for any to converse withall that had a mind to learn Yea he was a Fountain running over labouring to doe good to those who perhaps had no mind to receive it None more free and communicative then he was to such as desired to discourse with him nor would he grudge to be taken off from his studies upon such an occasion It may be truely said of him That a man might alwaies come Better from him and his mouth could drop Sentences as easily as an ordinary man's could speak Sense And he was no less happy in expressing his Mind then in conceiving wherein he seems to have excelled the famous Philosopher Plotin of whom Porphyry tells us that he was something careless of his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but was wholy taken up into his Mind He of whom we now speak had such a copia verborum a plenty of words and those so full pregnant and significant join'd with such an active Phansy as is very rarely to be found in the company of such a deep Understanding and Judgment as dwelt in him I have done with his Learning when I have told you That as he look'd upon Honours Riches and the eagerly-pursued things of this world as Vanities so did he look upon this also as a piece though a more excellent piece of Vanity as he was wont to phrase it if compared with the higher and more divine accomplishments of the Soul For he did not care to value himself by any of those things which were of a perishing nature which should fail and cease and vanish away but only by those things which were more solid and substantial of a Divine and Immortal nature which he might carry out of the world with him to which my Discourse shall not be long before it descend He was of very singular Wisdom and great Prudence of admirable skill and readiness in the managery of affairs which I make an account is an Imitation of that Providence of God that governs the World His Learning was so concocted that it lay not as an Idle notion in his Head but made him fit for any imploiment He was very full and clear in all his Resolutions at any debates a most wise Counseller in any difficulties and streights dextrous in untying any knot of great judgment in satisfying any scruple or doubt even in matters of Religion He was one that soon saw into the depth of any business that was before him and look'd it quite through that would presently turn it over and over in his Mind and see it on all sides and he understood things so well at the First sight that he did not often need any second thoughts but usually stood to the present resolution and determination of his Mind And adde to this his known Integrity Uprightness and Faithfulness his strong and lively his waking and truly-tender Conscience which joined with the former things I spoke of made him more then a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men now goe He was as one of the Ancients speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Exemplar of true Christian Philosophy and Vertue and as it were the spiritual Rule Line and Square thereof of so poized and even a life that by his Wisdom and Conscience were it not that every man should know for himself one might live almost at a venture walking blindfold through the world and not miscarry He had incorporated shall I say or insoul'd all Principles of Justice and Righteousness and made them one with himself So that I may say of him in Antoninus his phrase he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dip'd into Justice as it were over head and eares he had not a slight superficial tincture but was dyed and coloured quite through with it so that wheresoever he had a Soul there was Justice and Righteousness They who knew him very well know the truth of all this And I am perswaded he did as heartily and cordially as eagerly and earnestly doe what appeared to be Just and Right without any Self-respect or particular reflections as any man living Methinks I see how earnest he would be in a good matter which appeared to be Reasonable and Just as though Justice her self had been in him looking out at his Eyes and speaking at his Mouth It was a Vertue indeed that he had a great affection unto and which he was very zealous to maintain in whose quarrel he was in danger to be angry and sometimes to break forth into a short passion But he was alwaies very urgent upon us that by the Grace of God and the help of the mighty Spirit of Jesus Christ working in us we would endeavour to purge out the corruption of our Natures and to crucifie the Flesh with all the affections and lusts thereof yea to subdue as much as it is possible even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Souls those first motions that are without our consent and to labour after Purity of heart that so we might see God For his endeavour was not only to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the pollutions of the world through lust but as Plotin speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come to the true likeness of God and his Son or in the Apostles language to be partaker of the Divine nature And here now what words shall I use What shall I say of his Love None that knew him well but might see in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen I think speaks Love bubling and springing up in his Soul and flowing out to all and that Love unfained without guile hypocrisie or dissimulation I cannot tell you how his Soul was Universaliz'd how tenderly he embraced all God's creatures in his arms more especially Men and principally those in whom he beheld the Image of his heavenly Father There one might have seen running 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he would ever have emptied his Soul into theirs Let any that were throughly acquainted with him say if I lie And truly my Happiness is that I have such a subject to exercise my young and weak Oratory upon as will admit of little Hyperbole His Patience was no less admirable then his Love under a lingering and tedious disease wherein he never murmured nor complained but rested quietly satisfied in the Infinite Unbounded Goodness and Tenderness of his Father and the Commiserations of Jesus Christ our merciful High Priest who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities He still resolved with Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen in an Epistle to Philagrius O bravely done most noble Soul who canst play the Philosopher the Christian in thy sickness and sufferings who canst not only talk but doe not only doe but suffer
And he told me in his sickness that he hoped he had learned that for which God sent it and that he thought God kept him so long in such a case under such burdens and pressures that Patience might have its perfect work in him His sickness undoubtedly was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks a learned disease and full of true Philosophy which taught him more of real Christianity and made his Soul of a more strong able Athletick habit and temper For as S. James saith if Patience have its perfect work then is a Soul perfect and entire wanting nothing And really in his Sickness he shewed what Christianity and True Religion is able to doe what Might Power and Virtue there is in it to bear up a Soul under the greatest loads and that he could through Christ strengthening him doe all that which he so admirably discoursed of in his life But for his Humility it was that which was most apparent and conspicuous You might have beheld in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Father speaks true humility in a most eminent degree and the more eminent considering how much there was within him which would have swelled and puffed up another But from his first admission into the Universitie as I am informed by those that knew him he sought not great things for himself but was contented in the condition wherein he was He made not hast to rise and climb as youths are apt to doe which we in these late times too much experience wherein Youths scarce fledg'd have soared to the highest preferments but proceeded leisurely by orderly steps not to what he could get but to what he was fit to undertake He stai'd God's time of advancement with all industry and pains following his studies as if he rather desired to deserve honour then to be honoured He shook off all Idleness and Sloth the bane of youth and so had the Blessing of God upon his endeavours who gave him great encouragement from divers persons of worth and at last brought him unto this place And I challenge any one that is impartial to say if since he came hither they ever beheld in him any Pride Vain-glory Boasting Self-conceit Desire of honour and being famous in the world No there is not the man living that had the eyes ever to discern any thing of this swoln nature but on the contrary it was easie to take notice of most profound Humility and Lowliness of mind which made him a true Disciple of Jesus Christ who took upon him the form of a servant and made himself of no reputation And I dare say our dear friend was as true as humble a servant without any complement to the good of Mankind as any person that this day lives This was his designe in his studies and if it had pleased the Lord of life to have prolonged his daies it would have been more of his work For he was resolved as he once told me very much to lay aside other studies and to travel in the salvation of mens Souls after whose good he most ardently thirsted Shall I add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks above or unto all these his Faith I say his true lively and working Faith his simple plain-hearted naked Faith in Christ It is likely that it did not busie it self about many fine Notions Subtilties and Curiosities or believing whole Volumes but be sure it was that which was firmly set and fixed in the Mercy and Goodness of God through Christ that also which brought down Christ into his Soul which draw'd down Heaven into his Heart which suck'd in life and strength continually from our Saviour which made him hearty serious and constant in all those forenamed Christian Vertues His Faith was not without a Soul but what Isidore saith of Faith and Works held true of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Faith was animated quickned and actuated by these It made him God-like and he lived by Faith in the Son of God by it he came to be truly partaker of the Righteousness of Christ and had it wrought and formed in his very Soul For this indeed was the End of his life the main design which he carried on that he might become like to God So that if one should have asked him that Question in Antoninus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is thy art and profession thy business and imploiment He would not have answered To be a great Philosopher Mathematician Historian or Hebrician all which he was in great eminency To be a Physitian Lawyer General Linguist which Names and many more his General skill deserved But he would have answered as he doth there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Art is to be Good To be a true Divine is my care and business or in the Christian phrase To be holy as God is holy to be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect All that remember the serious behaviour and weightie expressions he used in his Prayers cannot but call to mind how much his Heart was set upon the attainment of this true Goodness I have transgressed too much my bounds now it is so late and trespassed perhaps too much upon your patience Yet I hope I should not weary you if I should discourse upon his Ingenuity his Courtesie his Gentleness and Sweetness with many other things of the like nature And let me say thus much that he was far from that Spirit of devouting zeal that now too much rages He would rather have been consumed in the service of men then have called for fire down from heaven as Elijah did to consume them And therefore though Elijah excelled him in this that he ascended up to Heaven in a fiery chariot yet herein I may say he was above the spirit of Elijah that he called for no fire to descend from heaven upon men but the fire of Divine love that might burn up all their Hatreds Roughness and Cruelty to each other But as for Benignity of Mind and Christian kindness every body that knew him will remember that he ever had their names in his mouth and I assure them they were no less in his heart and life as knowing that without these Truth it self is in a faction and Christ is drawn into a party And this Graciousness of Spirit was the more remarkable in him because he was of a temper naturally Hot and Cholerick as the greatest Minds most commonly are He was wiser then to let any Anger rest in his bosom much less did he suffer it to burn and boil til it was turned into gall and bitterness and least of all would he endure that any Passion should lodge in him till it was become a cankered Malice and black Hatred which men in these days can scarce hide but let it appear in their countenance and in their carriage towards others If he was at any time moved unto Anger it was but a sudden flushing in his face and it
did as soon vanish as arise and it used to arise upon no such occasions as I now speak of No whensoever he look'd upon the fierce and consuming Fires that were in mens Souls it made him sad not angry and it was his constant endeavour to inspire mens Souls with more benigne and kindly heats that they might warm but not scorch their Brethren And from this Spirit together with the rest of Christian Graces that were in him there did result a great Serenity Quiet and Tranquillity in his Soul which dwelt so much above that it was not shaken with any of those Tempests and Storms which use to unsettle more low and abject Minds He lived in a continued sweet enjoyment of God and so was not disquieted with scruples or doubts of his Salvation There was alwaies discernable in him a chearful sense of God's goodness which ceased not in the time of sickness But we most longed for to see the motions of his Soul when he drew near to the Centre of his rest He that had such a constant feeling of God within him we might conclude would have the most strong and powerful sense when he came nearer to a close conjunction with him But God was pleased to deny this to us and by a Lethargick distemper which seized on his Spirits he passed the six last daies of his life if I may call it a life in a kind of Sleep and without taking much notice of any thing he slept in the Lord. And now have I not described a Person of Worth and Eminency Have we not reason to be so sad as you see our Faces tell you that we are But alas half of that is not told you which your Eyes might have seen had you been acquainted with him I want thoughts and Words to make a lively pourtraiture of him my young Experience hath not yet seen to the height or the depth of these things which I have here given you a rude draught of and so my Conceipts and Expressions must needs fall far below that excellent degree of beauty wherein they dwelt in him Let it suffice therefore to say that I may keep to the word in the Text That he was truly a Father that he wanted Ages only to make him Reverend and that if he had lived many Generations ago left us the children of his Mind to posterity he might by this time have been numbred among the Fathers of the Church I have almost prevented my self already in the Two latter Particulars His singular Care and his great Usefulness both which must needs be concluded from the former His Care I say of others as a Tutor his Usefullness as a Fellow of this now mournful Society Let me speak a word or two of either 2. All his Pupils who are now truly Pupilli Fatherless children began to know in his sickness what it was to have and to want a loving Father a faithful Tutor and now they will know it more fully He was one that did so constantly mind their good that instilled such excellent pious Notions into their Minds gave such light in everything a man could desire to know that I could have been content though in this gown to have been his Pupil His Life taught them continual lessons of Justice Temperance Prudence Fortitude and Masculine vertue and above all he taught them true Dependance upon God and reference of themselves and all their Studies unto him with true Faith in and Imitation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for which end he often expounded to them out of the Holy Scriptures And for Humane learning the many good Scholars that came from under his hand do witness how dextrous he was at the training up of Youth in all good Literature Porphyry tells us of Plotin that he was such a carefull person that sundry Noble men and women with divers others when they died committed both their sons and daughters to his Tuition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unto some Tutelar Angel or a sacred and divine Guardian Truly those that come hither are in a manner without Father and Mother but they could not be committed to a more loving Tutor a more holy and faithful Guardian that would bring them up in all true Learning and Piety If any think that he was too severe let me tell them that they are such as find fault with the Lion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he looks not like an Ape but with a stern royal and Kingly countenance He both look'd and spake like a man that had drunk into his Soul such solid high and generous Principles as few men are acquainted with which made him very zealous not only for Righteousness Integrity and Holiness but for a Decorum in all things He had a great regard for all those things which are mentioned by the Apostle Philip. 4. 8. for whatsoever things were true honest or rather comely and grave seemly and venerable as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie for all that was just pure lovely of good fame and report if there was any praise or any vertue he was most earnest and forward in its behalf 3. And now what his Usefulness was and the Benefit we received by him all that bear any share in the government of this Society will be made to know by the want of him There is not one but will cry out with Elisha O the Chariot of this place and the horsemen thereof which words seem to express what a necessary man Elias was and to be just like that of Horace to Maecenas when sick which we may use concerning him that is now dead Grande decus columénque rerum Our great glory the pillar upon whose shoulders the weight of business of late lay O praesidium dulce decus meum as he saith in another place O thou who wast both my safe-guard and my ornament who wast a Society by thy self a College in brief what a loss have we sustained by thy departure That must not be resolved by me nor by any one single person of us but we must all lay our heads together to tell our loss To which of us was not he dear who is there that was not ingaged to him who can think himself as wise as he was when we had him And this our high and dear Esteem of him when he was with us leads me to speak of that Honour and Reverence which we all express to his Name that Affection which is in our Hearts to his Memory the sense that is in us of our great and unspeakable loss in Answer to those three foregoing Considerations about Elisha But here I must be very brief and put all together There is none that knew his Worth but honour his very dust And for my part I honour him so much that I wish we might doe as the Virgins of Israel did for Jephtah's daughter come once a year hither and lament his death and so at once we might express all
of God will not reside with Heaviness From the example of Jacob for that all that while he grieved for Joseph the Shechinah or the Holy Spirit did forsake him For so they had also a common Tradition that Jacob prophesied not that time while his grief for the loss of his son Joseph remained with him So L. Tosiphta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit of Prophesie dwells not with Sadness but with Chearfulness I will not here dispute the Punctualness of these Traditions concerning Moses and Jacob though I doubt not but the main Scope of them is true viz. that the Spirit of Prophesie used not to reside with any black or Melancholy passions but required a serene and pacate temper of Mind it being it self of a mild and gentle nature as it was well observed concerning the Holy Ghost in another notion by Tertullian in his de Spectaculis Deus praecepit Spiritum Sanctum utpote pro naturae suae bono tenerum delicatum tranquillitate lenitate quiete pace tractare non furore non bile non irâ non dolore inquietare Now according to this notion I think we have gained some light for the further understanding of some Passages in Psalm 51. which the Chaldee Paraphrast and Hebrew Commentators also understand of the Spirit of Prophesie which was taken from David in that time of his sorrow and grief of Mind upon the reflection of his shameful miscarriage in the matter of Uriah and this is called ver 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free Spirit or a Spirit of alacritie and libertie of mind acting by generous and noble and free impulses upon it and ver 8. it is paraphrased by Joy and Gladness as being that Temper of Mind which it most liberally moved upon and acted as likewise ver 12. a like Periphrasis is used of it the joy of God's salvation and ver 10. David thus prayeth for the restauration of it to him and the establishing him in the firm possession of it Create in me a clean heart O God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and renew a fix'd Spirit within me As if he had said Thy Holy Spirit of Prophesie dwells in no unhallowed Minds hut with puritie and holiness and when these are violated that presently departs the holy and the impure Spirit cannot converse together therefore cleanse my heart of all pollution that this divine guest being restored to me may find a constant habitation within me And thus both Rasi and Abenezra gloss on this place but especially R. Kimchi who pursues this sense very largely and so before them the Talmudists had expounded it Gem. Joma c. 2. where they thus descant upon those words ver 11. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me and tell us how David was punish'd by Leprosie and double Excommunication one from this Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words I find most corruptly translated by Vorstius in his Comment upon Maimon his Fundamenta legis I should therefore thus render them in their native and genuine sense Per sex menses erat David leprosus viz. propter peccatum in negotio Uriae admissum separabant se ab eo viri Synagogae magnae atque ablata est ab eo Shechinah i. Spiritus Propheticus Primum constat ex Psalm 119. ubi dicitur Revertantur ad me timentes te scientes testimonia tua alterum ex Psalm 51. ubi dicitur Fac revertatur ad me laetitia salutis tuae But it s now time to look a little into that place which the Masters constantly refer to in this notion viz. 1 Kings 3. where when the Kings of Israel and Judah and Edom in their distress for water upon their warlike expedition against the King of Moab came to Elisha to enquire of God by him the Prophet Elisha ver 14. seems to have been moved with indignation against the King of Israel and so makes a very unwelcome address to him Surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehosaphat the King of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee and then it follows ver 15. But now bring me a Minstrell and it came to pass when the Minstrell play'd that the hand of the Lord came upon him Which words are thus expounded by R. D. Kimchi out of the Rabbines with which R. S. Jarchi R. L. Ben Gersom agree for the substance of his meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Doctors tell us that from that day wherein his Master Elijah was took up into heaven the Spirit of Prophesie remained not with him for a certain time for for this cause he was very sorrowful and the divine Spirit doth not reside with heaviness Others say that by reason of the indignation he conceived against the King of Israel he was disquieted in his mind and touching this they say That whensoever a Prophet is disturbed through anger or passion the Holy Spirit forsakes him From whence learn we this From the example of Elisha who said Give me a Minstrel Thus we may by this time see the Reason why Musical instruments were so frequently used by the Prophets especially the Hagiographi which indeed seems to be nothing else but that their Minds might be thereby put into a more composed liberal and chearful temper and so the better disposed and fitted for the transportation of the Prophetical Spirit So we have heard before out of the 1 Chron. 25. how Asaph Heman and Jeduthun composed their rapt and Divine Poems at the sound of the Quire-Musick of the Temple Another famous place we find for this purpose 1 Sam. 10. which place as well as the former hath been I think much mistaken and misinterpreted by some of Singing whereas certainly it cannot be meant of any thing less then Divine Poetrie and a Composure of Hymns excited by a Divine Energy inwardly moving the Mind In that place Samuel having anointed Saul King of Israel to assure him that it was so ordained of God he tells him of some Events that should occur to him a little after his departure from him whereof this is one that meeting with some Prophets he himself should find the Impulses of a Prophetical Spirit also moving in him ver 5. These Prophets are thus described After that thou shalt come to the hill of God c. and it shall come to pass when thou art come thither to the City that thou shalt meet a company of Prophets coming down from the high place with a Psaltery and a Tabret and a Pipe and an Harp before them and they shall prophesie And the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee and thou shalt prophesie with them and shalt be turned into another man Where this Musick which they were accompanied with was to vigorate and compose their Minds as Kimchi comments upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And before them was a Psalterie or Lute and a Tabret and a Pipe and an Harp for asmuch as the holy Spirit dwells no where
into the Soul of man wasts and eats out the innate vigour of the Soul and casts it into such a deep Lethargy as that it is not able to recover it self But Religion like that Balsamum vitae being once conveighed into the Soul awakens and enlivens it and makes it renew its strength like an Eagle and mount strongly upwards towards Heaven and so uniting the Soul to God the Centre of life and strength it renders it undaunted and invincible Who can tell the inward life and vigour that the Soul may be fill'd with when once it is in conjunction with an Almighty Essence There is a latent and hidden virtue in the Soul of man which then begins to discover it self when the Divine Spirit spreads forth its influences upon it Every thing the more Spiritual it is and the higher and nobler it is in its Being the more active and vigorous it is as the more any thing falls and sinks into Matter the more dull and sluggish unwieldy it is The Platonists were wont to call all things that participated most of Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now nothing doth more purifie more sublimate and exalt the Soul then Religion when the Soul suffers God to sit within it as a refiner and purifier of Silver and when it abides the day of his coming for he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers sope Mal. 3. Thus the Soul being purified and spiritualliz'd and changed more and more into the glorious Image of God is able to doe all things out of weakness is made strong gives proof of its Divine vigour and activity and shews it self to be a Noble and Puissant Spirit such as God did at first create it CHAP. V. The Third Property or Effect discovering the Nobleness of Religion viz. That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End viz. The Glory of God and his own becoming like unto God Low and Particular Ends and Interests both debase and streighten a mans Spirit The Universal Highest and Last End both ennobles and enlarges it A man is such as the End is he aims at The great power the End hath to mold and fashion man into its likeness Religion obliges a man not to seek himself nor to drive a trade for himself but to seek the Glory of God to live wholy to him and guides him steddily and uniformly to the One Chief Good and Last End Men are prone to flatter themselves with a pretended aiming at the Glory of God A more full and distinct explication of what is meant by a mans directing all his actions to the Glory of God What it is truly and really to glorifie God God's seeking his Glory in respect of us is the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us Our seeking the Glory of God is our endeavouring to partake more of God and to resemble him as much as we can in true Holiness and every Divine Vertue That we are not nicely to distinguish between the Glory of God and our own Salvation That Salvation is nothing else for the main but a true Participation of the Divine Nature To love God above our selves is not to love him above the Salvation of our Souls but above our particular Beings and above our sinfull affections c. The Difference between Things that are Good relatively and those that are Good absolutely and Essentially That in our conformity to these God is most glorified and we are made most Happy THE Third Property or Effect whereby Religion discovers its own Excellency is this That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End and Scope of life viz. The Glory of God the Highest Being and his own assimilation or becoming like unto God That Christian in whom Religion rules powerfully is not so low in his ambitions as to pursue any of the things of this world as his Ultimate End his Soul is too big for earthly designes and interests but understanding himself to come from God he is continually returning to him again It is not worth the while for the Mind of Man to pursue any Perfection lower then its own or to aim at any End more ignoble then it self is There is nothing that more streightens and confines the free-born Soul then the particularity indigency and penury of that End which it pursues when it complies most of all with this lower world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is well observed by an excellent Philosopher the true Nobleness and Freedome of it is then most disputable and the Title it holds to true Liberty becomes most litigious It never more slides and degenerates from it self then when it becomes enthrall'd to some Particular interest as on the other side it never acts more freely or fully then when it extends it self upon the most Universal End Every thing is so much the more Noble quò longiores habet fines as was well observ'd by Tully As low Ends debase a mans spirit supplant rob it of its birth-right so the Highest and Last End raises and ennobles it and enlarges it into a more Universal and comprehensive Capacity of enjoying that one Unbounded Goodness which is God himself it makes it spread and dilate it self in the Infinite Sphere of the Divine Being and Blessedness it makes it live in the Fulness of Him that fills all in all Every thing is most properly such as the End is which is aim'd at the Mind of man is alwaies shaping it self into a conformity as much as may be to that which is his End and the nearer it draws to it in the atchievement thereof the greater likeness it bears to it There is a Plastick Virtue a Secret Energy issuing forth from that which the Mind propounds to itself as its End to mold and fashion it according to its own Model The Soul is alwaies stamp'd with the same Characters that are engraven upon the End it aims at and while it converses with it and sets it self before it it is turned as Wax to the Seal to use that phrase in Job Man's Soul conceives all its Thoughts and Imaginations before his End as Laban's Ewes did their young before the Rods in the watering troughs He that pursues any worldly interest or earthly thing as his End becomes himself also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earthly the more the Soul directs it self to God the more it becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-like deriving a print of that glory and beauty upon it self which it converseth with as it is excellently set forth by the Apostle But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory That Spirit of Ambition and Popularity that so violently transports the Minds of men into a pursuit of Vain-glory makes them as vain as that Popular air they live upon the Spirit of this world that draws forth a mans designes after worldly interests makes him