wholly Intellectual he will not only esteem the Effluxes and Emanations of the Rational Life to be the Foundations of his Felicity but seek the Amplification and Diffusion of it and reduce all exorbitant Motions to its Rules and Determinations And if we will not impose upon ourselves nor degrade our Minds below the Folly and Triflingness of Children but act like Men who prefer Things before empty Sounds and Names the eternal Rules of Justice Righteousness and Goodness will appear infinitely more eligible than any thing else in the World beside for let a man be possest of the most glorious and splendid Advantages and Satisfactions that possibly can grow out of the Earth and let him extract the Flower and Quintessence of Sublunary Delights and he will find them at the best very dilute and flashy and too base and disproportionate Objects of a pure active and indefatigable Mind And were it not that men are cheated into an Esteem and Approbation of them partly from the Example of others who daily run the greatest Hazards and Labours in their Acquisition and Purchase and partly from the innate Pravity and Iniquity of their own Spirits which being preingag'd in an early Contention after the things of Sense are more forcibly struck and moved by the Emissions and Radiations of the Corporeal World it were exceeding improbable they should forego such valuable and excellent Pleasures as those of Virtue and Holiness for the small and inconsiderable though the most refined Joys of this Region of Mutability especially when they are perpetually attended with such instant Satieties and afflictive Circumstances That blessed Author of our Felicity the Lord Christ who both knew the Soveraign Good of our Spirits and designed the Cementing and Restauration of the broken and distracted World by entring into it makes it his first care and business to purge and refine our Minds from the Dross and Pollution of material Concretions by bringing down the Price of terrestrial Love and setting a low Estimate upon what the World calls Happiness Riches and Honours and all the choicest Gratifications of the inferior Life and propounding not only such Precepts as in their own nature tended to the raising and elevating the Powers and Faculties of our Souls to their highest and most enlarg'd Perfection and which by our Conformity to them should fully satisfie all our rational Thirsts and Appetites but likewise revives our languishing Resolutions and reinspirits our Minds with new Strength and Vigour by his own Example as the most attractive and powerful Means that possibly can be offered to an ingenuous Nature All the time that he conversed upon Earth he went about doing good transcribing the fairest and most amiable Perfections and Attributes of the moral Essence of God for our Imitation redressing and healing the Imperfections of Mankind and casting a benign and auspicious Influence upon the distempered World by propagating and diffusing the holy Life of God into all capable Receptacles And that he might shew us what a small and mean Valuation he puts upon mundane and temporal Felicities and how little they contribute to the Advancement of that which is the Flower and Summity of our Souls he commands great Temperance and Moderation both in the Prosecution and Use of them and declares a high Dislike against all Exorbitancy and Excesse condemning all anxious and solicitous Thoughts about these momentany Concernments as criminous and faulty And what he enjoined upon his Disciples and Followers he himself always observ'd and practis'd never disquieting his holy Breast with doubtful and corroding Cares nor charging Heaven with Partiality and Unkindness though he became so poor for our sakes that he was forced by a Miracle to pay his Tribute-penny to the Roman Governour His blameless and immaculate Soul no impure touch of Pleasure ever defiled nor unjust and unhallowed Action ever stained and sullied its native Brightness but remained to his dying upon the Cross a spotless Temple eternally consecrated to the Divinity residing in it But that which did most of all allure and attract the Hearts and Spirits of men was his exceeding and superlative Charity which not only burnt bright within its own Orb but by a sacred Influence and Communication melted and thaw'd the benum'd and frozen World into a soft pliable and sequacious temper and set abroad a Godlike Spirit of universal Tenderness Pity and Compassion upon the Earth And that so illustrious a Person might want nothing to recommend his Life to Mankind as the most complete Pattern of the Divine Nature his Patience exhibited in a noble sufferance of all those Ignominies and Disgraces put upon him made him no less conspicuous than those other radiant Virtues rendred him acceptable to God and Man And if there be any thing more that is worthy and decorous and perfective of the Nature of Man it was eminently contained in the Lord Christ whose glorious Mind was too large and great to bring forth any poor and abject Design but took the whole World into his Care and folded the Creation within the Arms of dear Compassion By all this and much more we are taught wherein consists the greatest Excellency Beauty and Dignity of our Souls namely in the Acts of Goodness Righteousness and Mercy in profound Humility and Self-Denial in Patience Longanimity and uncorrupted Purity of Body and Spirit For these and such like Heroical Exertions of our Minds bring not only a present Delight and Gratefulness with them but pervade by a secret and insensible Influence all our Animal Powers and diffuse a certain Savour and Relish of themselves throughout our inferior Faculties As it is with Vice and Sin every pitiful and degenerate Production of which spreads its contagious Nature and leavens our whole Man with its poysonous and infectious Inspirations so much more will Truth and Righteousness disseminate a healthful Efflux and hallow our vital Capacities as being the most congenerous and agreeable Objects of our intellectual Parts The Life of God which alone ought to have the Soveraign Command over the whole rational Creation and which will in due time conquer and triumph over the dark and apostate Principality that Life I say of universal Sanctity and Righteousness is an immortal thing like its great Source and Parent and is always passing through the World and will not rest any where but in such a fit and congruous Subject as bears some Analogy and Similitude with itself And being once seated there unless it be forcibly driven out by rebellious Lusts to which it proclaims an irreconcileable War it will continually dispread its lovely Nature and enlarge its Kingdom by the total Consumption or Conversion into its own Likeness and Quality whatever resists and hinders its Progress and at last when freed from the sluggish weight of Mortality like a quick and active Flame carry up the Soul with Joy and Triumph into Heaven to which it always breaths and aspires Heaven itself is nothing but the blessed Mansion of
Righteousness a State of pure and undefiled Light whose happy and glorious Inhabitants are perfectly delivered from the Bondage and Servility of Corruption and Goodness and Justice and all the Moral Excellencies of Divinity enthron'd within their sacred Breasts And every good Man does not only presage but really possesses in this Life a part of his future Happiness when the Divine Nature throughly informs possesses and actuates the Powers and Faculties of his Mind and he faithfully attends to and is guided and governed by its Laws and Suggestions And he whose Soul and Spirit thus becomes an Habitation of Righteousness is in a sense Deified and God dwells in him and he is united to that Omnipresent Spirit of Love and Purity For that Divine Nature the Participation of which is the End and Design of the whole Gospel is not Power and Wisdom but something more precious and soveraign for if a man had all Power that he could remove Mountains and with his breath stop the constant Gyres and Circulations of the Earth and if he had all Wisdom and Knowledge to understand the abstrusest Theory in Nature and Providence and could perswade with the Rhetorick and Oratory of an Angel yet if he had not Charity the Bond of Perfection which not only consolidates and holds together the great Body Politick of Heaven and Earth but is the Root and Center in which all the lines of Beauty and Excellence in Human Souls unite and meet he would have no more of the true Life and Spirit of Christianity in him than a tinkling and sounding Piece of Brass Love is the Joy of Men and Angels the Glory of Heaven and the first pregnant Spring and Source from whence issued all the numerous Productions of the Spiritual and Corporeal Life For God is Love and Love is that to speak with Reverence makes the Divinity a Uniform Being all other Modes and Attributes being too fluctuating arbitrary and unsetled to be the Basis and Foundation of that ever-to-be-adored Author of all things And as Goodness is the most pretious thing in the Deity and for that reason alone obtains the first place in acting so is it that which consummates and completes all moral Agents that derive from him Power and Wisdom and all other Modes being nothing but the several Explications and Diffusions of absolute Goodness But that we may not mistake ourselves the Philosopher tells us of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Harlotry as well as a Heavenly Venus whereby the Soul is enamour'd with these fading Beauties and ensnared by the powerful Inescations of Sense and Corporeity and this weakens and destroys the Soul but 't is the celestial Venus that is the beautiful and perfective Object of Human Minds and by its Union with it changes and transforms the Soul into its glorious Image And what we have hitherto said is no more than what the natural Sentiments of our own Souls bear witness to and all the moral part of Ethnick Philosophy attests which was wholly employed in laying down Rules and Precepts for the regulating mens Lives and putting a stop to the bold Intrusion of Vice and this was universally acknowledged the only way to acquire a Cognation and Affinity with God And what was judged laudable and decorous then and approved as most excellent is made much more so by the Christian Oeconomy which sets the Attainments of a rational Soul at a higher pitch than the secular Wisdom and Philosophy of the Gentiles could arrive to For what more ennobles and inspirits the Mind of Man with true Glory and Magnanimity than the captivating his irrational Desires and suppressing all inordinate Lusts and Appetites and the introducing a Spirit of Love Meekness Temperance and Sobriety What more Divine and Godlike than Charity to bind up an aking head and dry up watry eyes and relieve him who was fighting with the Pressures of Want and Poverty What greater Pleasure can we reasonably imagine than that which results from an Act of Goodness and Bounty whether it respect the Souls or Bodies of our fellow-Creatures in extricating him who was involved in a Labyrinth of Misery and bringing the cheerful Day to him who sate in a Night of Ignorance and Error Which things if duly considered as they are very agreeable and proportionate to our higher and rational Soul so they depretiate the grosser Satisfactions of our viler parts and make good this first Proposition That the true Felicity of Human Souls results from their Participation of the Divine Nature 2. The Gospel shews us the true way to obtain this complete Perfection of our Spirits that it is by an universal Purification of our Minds from all Pollution whatever and an entire Resignation of ourselves to the Conduct of the Divine Life and Light But it will be said that Philosophy teaches as much as this and the Pythagoreans Platonists and Stoicks asserted the highest Perfection of the Soul to consist in her Union with God which is obtained by a perfect Extirpation of all irregular Motions and an abstraction of the Soul from her Love and Sympathy with the Body and transforming her wholly into Intellect For the Passions and sensual Affections being once subdued and the Rational Life excited the Soul becomes presently like unto God as Porphyry speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Hierocles shews us the Scope and End of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Purgation of the Mind namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore although the Heathens by the Light of Nature proceeded to the eradication of Vice out of their Minds yet they retained still an arrogative Life ascribing the Attainments and Perfections of their Souls and their whole Progress in Virtue to their own solitary Endeavours and this their Spiritual and subtle Pride tainted and infected the best of their other Performances So that though they were glorious Lights in their Generations yet they fell short of the Character of a true Christian which is an entire Subjection of a Mans self to the Government and Command of the Life of God being perfectly dead to all Self-seeking and Interest and no otherwise affected to ourselves than if we were not And this heavenly Temper the Divine Providence reserved for the meek and humble Soul of the Messias to bring into the World who hath resumed that as the most compendious way to Blessedness which was rejected by the wise men of the World 3. He that shall impartially and without Prejudice peruse the Evangelical Histories shall find that there is not any thing recorded in them vain and trivial but such as is of the highest moment and importance and some way or other useful and advantageous for the Propagation of Christianity in the World and for those things which seem most liable to the Exceptions and Cavils of vile and prophane Persons I shall endeavour to shew their Reasonableness and how becoming and decorous it was to insert them in the Histories of the Gospel It is too well known that there
victorious The Spirit of God is no dull and sluggish Principle but a quick and active Life and into whatever Soul it enters it is perpetually cleansing and purifying and refining it till it have wholly extirpated and destroyed whatever beats no similitude with itself and rendred the whole Man an immaculate Temple for the Manifestation of its own glorious Presence Let no man then pretend an invincible Infirmity or that he is fatally bound and enslaved to Sin and Vice for if we would but excite those Powers God has given us and by ardent Breathings invocate the gracious Auxiliaries of Heaven there would be Wonders wrought upon our Souls the Strength of our Corruptions would abate and our furious Passions be restrained and reduced into Discipline and Order 3. The last general Head is the Promise of a future and blessed Immortality in Heaven when this present Life is ended The blessed Jesus while he lived upon Earth did not wholly obscure his Glory in the mantle of Flesh and Blood but gave a notable Specimen of that efficacious Life and Power which as he himself was already possessed of so all those that believe in his Name should hereafter be endued withal which should melt their Corruptible into Incorruption and translate them to the quiet and peaceful Regions of Immortality in his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor which was enough to call off the Thoughts and Cares of men from the trifling Concerns of this World and teach them that there was a better Portion to be expected for all the Sons of God and Virtue in the pure and undefiled Mansions of Heaven where dwells nothing but Truth and Goodness But the most lively and pregnant Evidence of the future Subsistence of our Souls was his glorious Resurrection from the dead whereby as he was declared to be the Son of God with Power so it gives us a full Assurance and convictive Demonstration even to outward Sense that the comfortless Chambers of the Grave shall not for ever detein us but that when he who is our Life shall appear and summon Earth and Sea to deliver up their dead and open the secret Receptacles of Souls then shall all holy and righteous Persons appear with him in Glory and take possession of their long expected Joy and receive the just Recompence of all their Pains and Labours an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved by a gracious Providence in the Heavens for them All Power is committed into the hands of Christ who hath vanquished Death and Hell and captivated all the Powers of Darkness and begotten us to a lively Hope that when we shall put off our Mortality and be released from all terrestrial Pressures and Incumbrances he will cloth us with an heavenly Body like unto his own Body of Light and Glory But lest we should undo ourselves with fruitless Expectations and flie to Heaven in our vain Dreams of Salvation before our sincere Conformity to Gods blessed Will and Commands has rendred us capable of that pure and holy State fancying we can read our Names written among the Stars before we have learnt the Precepts of a holy Life God hath annexed Conditions of Obedience to all his Promises and resolved that no man shall be crowned but he that with Courage and Perseverance maintains the War against Sin and Hell And indeed the Reward that is promised to all virtuous Persons in the Gospel hath so great Affinity and Agreement with Holiness the Condition of it that in the Nature of the thing itself he cannot be capable of the one who is not aforehand invested with the other For what is Heaven but a state of spotless Love and Purity where no Envy nor Malice straitens and contracts the boundless and enlarged no clouds of Passion or disordered Lust obscure the Brightness of that eternal Day where the Sun of Righteousness neither rises nor sets upon the Horizon of Time but remains Vertical for ever And now what Concord can possibly be imagined between such transcendent Beauty and Glory and the Deformity and Ugliness of the Frame and Temper of an unrighteous mans Spirit where every thing lies cross and untoward and his unruly Desires like the boisterous Waves enraged by a sudden Storm sweep the bottom of his polluted Soul and throw up so much Mire and Dirt that it defaces whatever is comely and leaves not the least Emblem of Heaven to be discerned in it This is the grand importance of the Promises of the Gospel which is enough to demonstrate the prudent Care and dear Affection of the Son of God to the Children of Men and a sufficient Manifestation of the great Ingratitude and Unworthiness of those who do not believe in him that it is not the Want of Reasons or convictive Arguments but their own careless and wretchless Neglect of Consideration that makes them deaf to such Charms of Love and stupid and unmindful of so important Interests But men seldom want Objections against that which they have no mind to believe against this therefore 't is said That if the Promises of that eternal Reward Christ has made to us in the Gospel be so framed as to be inevident to men and leave them place of doubting it will be no such great Crime in wicked Persons not to believe those Promises and so not to embrace them To this I say 1. That the Gospel leaves no such place of doubting as to make Infidelity or a Disbelief of it excusable For Unbelief can then only be excusable when there are really wanting such Arguments as may beget Faith in a rational and unprejudic'd Person But the Gospel and the Promises thereof being sufficiently confirmed by such prevalent Reasons as are apt to acquire Belief and Credence from an unbias'd Nature the pretended Inevidence where there is no just Cause or Suspicion of Doubting cannot at all patronize Infidelity nor be a reasonable ground to act contrary to what Belief would otherwise incite them It s true were the Arguments for the Disbelief of the Promises of Life and Salvation equal to and strong as those that perswade us to the Belief of them there would be some Colour and Appearance of Reason for rejecting them but when there can be no such Doubting or Fluctuation of Judgment as proceeds from an Equilibration of Arguments on both sides it is impossible that Infidelity should have any rational Apology For what can be more convictive than to have some holy and divine Person come into the World who should by many infallible Miracles Wonders and Signs give an evident Proof that he came from God and for a full Confirmation of his Doctrin rise from the dead the third day after the suffering a painful and ignominious Death and to shew that he was no Spectrum or illusive Phantasm conversing with his Disciples for the space of forty days and afterwards ascending in their Presence into the highest Heavens there to rule and govern his Church till the End of