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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
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
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