otherwise altogether unwarrantable in themselves may notwithstanding be justified by Zeal for God and good Ends. But God needs no mans Zeal to promote an Imaginary Interest of his in the World by doing unjust things for him Will you speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him will you accept his Person 'T was the generous Expostulation of Job with his Friends and he tells them in the following words that this was nothing else but to mock God as one man mocketh another True Divine Zeal is no Corybantick Fury but a calm and regular Heat guided and managed by Light and Prudence and carried out principally neither for nor against Indifferent Rites and unnecessary Opinions but those things that are immutably Good and Fundamental to Christianity alwaies acknowledging a due Subordination to that Authority Civil and Ecclesiastical that is over us Lastly Some there are whose pretence to Religion and the Spirit is founded in nothing else but a Faculty of Rhetoricating and extemporizing with Zeal and Fervency which they take to be nothing less then Divine Inspiration and that which the Scripture calls Praying in the Holy Ghost an undoubted Character of a person truly Regenerated Which being a great delusion whereby many are hindred from seeking after the real effects of the Divine Spirit by idolizing instead thereof that which is merely Natural if not Artificial I think it not impertinent here to speak a little of it And certainly that which is frequently attained to in the very height by persons grosly hypocritical and debauched can never be concluded to be Divine Inspiration or to proceed from any higher Principle then mere Natural Enthusiasm For there is not onely a Poetical Enthusiasm of which Plato discourseth in his Ion but though Oratory be a more sober thing a Rhetorical Enthusiasm also that makes men very eloquent affectionate and bewitching in their language beyond what the power of any bare Art and Precepts could inable them unto insomuch that both these Poets and Orators have oftentimes conceited themselves to be indeed divinely inspired as those known Verses testify Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus illo and Sedibus aethereis Spiritus ille venit And concerning Orators the like might be proved if the time would here permit by sundry Testimonies But I shall here instance onely in Aristides a famous Orator who not onely speaks positively of himself as inspired in his Oratiòns but affirms the same also concerning Rhetorick in general when it is extraordinary that it comes by immediate Inspiration as Oracles and Prophecies doe and not from Art or Nature Wherefore it is not at all to be wondred at if when men are employed in Religious and Devotional Exercises the same Natural Enthusiasm especially having the advantage of Religious Melancholy which makes men still more Enthusiastical should so wing and inspire the Phancies of these Religious Orators as to make them wonderfully fluent eloquent and rapturous so that they beget strange Passions in their Auditors and conclude themselves to be Divinely inspired Whereas notwithstanding they may have no more of Divine Inspiration in all this then those Poets and Orators before mentioned had that is to say be no otherwise inspired then by a Rhetorical Hypochondriacal Enthusiasm that is merely Natural But it is farre from my Intention here to disparage the sincere and ardent Affections of devout Souls naturally and freely breathing out their earnest Desires unto God in private although perhaps this be not without some kind of Enthusiasm also For Enthusiasm as well as Zeal and other Natural things may be well used and being rightly circumstantiated and subservient to a better principle become irreprehensible Some have observed that no great work of the Brain that begot much admiration in the World was ever atchieved without some kind of Enthusiasm and the same may be affirmed of the most transcendently Vertuous and Heroical Actions But then the Goodness of these Actions is never to be estimated merely by the Degree of Enthusiastick Heat and Ardor that is in them but by such other Laws and Circumstances as Moralize humane Actions Wherefore my meaning as I said before is onely this To caution against that Vulgar and Popular Error of mistaking the Natural and Enthusiastick Fervour of mens spirits and the Ebulliency of their Phancy when it is tinctur'd with Religion and idolizing of it instead of the supernatural Grace of God's Holy Spirit and of looking for the Effect of Religion and Demonstration of God's Spirit principally in Words and Talk or thinking that God is chiefly glorified with a loud Noise and long Speeches For the true Demonstration of God's Holy Spirit is no-where to be look'd for but in Life and Action or such earnest and affectionate breathings after a farther participation of the Divine Image as are accompanied with real and unfeigned endeavours after the same which is the true Praying in the Holy Ghost though there be no extemporaneous effusion of words And therefore when some Corinthians were puffed up by reason of a Faculty which they had of Rhetoricating Religiously S. Paul like an Apostle tells them that he would come amongst them and know not the Speech of them that were puffed up but the Power For the Kingdome of God saith he consisteth not in Word but in Power and Life Wherefore laying aside these and such like childish mistakes and things that are little to the purpose let us seriously apply our selves to the main Work of our Religion that is to mortify and vanquish our Sinful Lusts by the Assistence of God's Holy Spirit through Faith in Christ that so being Dead to Sin here we may live with God eternally hereafter The End Verse 17. Rom. 4. In Iggereth Teman Psal. 106. Luke 24. 1 Cor. 15. 27. Verse 24. Verse 28. 2 Cor. 3. Revel 3. 19. 1 Pet. 4. 1. Prov. 17. 15. Phll. 3. 12. 1 Joh. 3. 9. Ezck. 20. 25. * See Gemara in Chetuboth cap. 13. Ein Is-rael num 50. * In Nachalath Avoth cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the very same with the opinion of the Christians that hold that after the Resurrection men shall not eat drink marry or be given in marriage or die again but continue eternally in those Bodies resembling the Heavenly Bodies and these they vulgarly call Glorified Bodies 1 Cor. 4. 19.
and Living Faith that worketh by Love which is the very Essence of the New Creature or Regenerate Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be imputed or accounted for Righteousness under the Gospel-dispensation where God will not proceed according to Legal Rigour and Severity with his fallen Creatures but according to that Equity and ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Philosopher tells us is the Truest Justice But our onely design is to caution against that Antinomian Error which is too often insinuated under the Notion of Imputed Righteousness as if there were no necessity of Inherent Righteousness and a Real Victory over Sin in order to Salvation but that an Imputed or Imaginary one might serve the turn Which Error springing up very early amongst the Gnostick-Christians S. John gives a seasonable Antidote against it 1 John 3. 7. Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous and in Chap. 2. v. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Liar and the Truth is not in him To which purpose is that also in his first Chap. v. 5. This is the Message which we have heard of him and declare to you That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all If we say that we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and doe not the Truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have Fellowship one with another and the Bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Wherefore the same Apostle in that Epistle tells us of overcoming the Wicked one Chap. 2. 14. and of overcoming the World by our Faith in Christ Chap. 5. 4. And in the Apocalyps he propoundeth from Christ himself divers remarkable Promises to him that overcometh That he shall eat of the Tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God c. 2. v. 7. That he shall not be hurt of the Second Death v. II. That he shall have the hidden Manna and a white Stone with a new Name written in it which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it v. 17. That he will give him the morning Star v. 28. That he shall be clothed in white Raiment and his name shall not be blotted out of the Book of Life c. 3. v. 5. That he shall be a Pillar in the Temple of God v. 12. and That he shall sit with Christ in his Throne as he overcame and sate down with his Father in his Throne v. 21. The Condition of all which Promises being Overcoming we may well conclude from thence that there is a Real and not an Imaginary Victory onely to be obtained over the Power of Sin as well as the Guilt of it Nay it is true and very observable that those Places which are usually quoted as the Foundation of an Imputed Righteousness in some other sense then what we have before mentioned are indeed no otherwise to be understood then of a Real Inward Righteousness that is wrought or infused by the Spirit of Christ. As that principal one Philip. 3. v. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord that I may win him and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Where Christ whom the Apostle desires to win and to be found in and the Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the Righteousness which is of God through Faith are no External Imputed Righteousness but the Real Inward Righteousness of the New Creature wrought by the Spirit of Christ through Faith which is opposed here to our own Righteousness and the Righteousness which is of the Law that is the Righteousness of outward Works done by our own Natural power according to the Letter of the Law in our Unregenerate state for so the following words explain the meaning That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the dead And this same Inward and Real Righteousness is often elsewhere called Christ and the New man that is said to be In us and which we are exhorted to Put on not by Conceit or Imagination onely but by real Conformity to his Nature and Participation of his Spirit And whereas the Magnifiers of Free Grace in an Antinomian sense and the Decriers of Inherent Righteousness commonly conceive that the Free Grace of God consists in nothing but either in the Pardon of Sin and Exemption from Punishment or the Imputation of an External Holiness and accounting men Just freely without any Condition but onely the mere Believing of this that they are so accounted and that Faith is no otherwise considered in the Gospel then in order to the Believing of this Imputation and that our own Works when they are comparatively undervalued to Grace and Faith are to be taken for all Inherent Righteousness and Holiness even the New Creature it self That all these are Errors as it might be abundantly proved from sundry other places of Scripture so it may sufficiently appear from that one Ephes. 2. v. 4 c. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of Works left any man should boast For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works For when we are here said to be saved by Grace it is plain that the Apostle means by Saved inwardly Quickned and Sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Grotius well here is Purgari à Vittis which inward Sanctification is here attributed to God's Free Grace and denied to our selves and to Works the meaning whereof is that it is not effected by our own Works whether of outward Morality or Legal Ceremonies done by our Natural power in the Unregenerate state but by the quickning and enlivening Spirit of Christ inwardly creating us a-new And lastly Faith is plainly made the Instrument of this inward Sanctification that is not wrought by our own Works but the Grace and Spirit of Christ. Whence we may well conclude That the true Object of the Christian Faith is not onely the Bloud of Christ shed upon the Cross for the Remission of Sin but also the renewing Spirit of Christ for the inward conquering and mortifying of it and the Quickning or Raising of us to an Heavenly Life And I dare be bold
Soul yet it has no just Title much less a Right of Inheritance in it For Sin is but a Stranger and Foreiner in the Soul an Usurper and Intruder into the Lord's Inheritance Sin it is no Nature as S. Austin and others of the Fathers often inculcate but an adventitious and extraneous thing and the true and ancient Nature of the Soul of Man suffers violence under it and is oppressed by it It is nothing else but the Preternatural state of Rational Beings and therefore we have no reason to think it must needs be perpetual and unalterable It is a strange thing that a jarring Instrument by the hand of a skilful Musician should ever be set in tune again Doubtless if an Instrument of Musick were a Living thing it would be sensible of Harmony as its proper state and abhorre Discord and Dissonancy as a thing preternatural to it The Soul of Man was Harmonical as God at first made it till Sin disordering the Strings and Faculties put it out of tune and marr'd the Musick of it but doubtless that Great Harmostes that tunes the whole World and makes all things keep their Times and Measures is able to set this lesser Instrument in Tune again Sin is but a Disease and Dyscrasie in the Soul Righteousness is the Health and natural Complexion of it and there is a Propension in the nature of every thing to return to its proper state and to cast off whatever is heterogeneous to it And some Physicians tell us that Medicaments are but subservient to Nature by removing obstructions and impediments but Nature it self and the inward Archoeus released and set at liberty works the Cure Bodies when they are bent out of their Place and violently forced out of the natural Position of their Parts have a Spring of their own and an inward strong Propension to return to their own natural Posture which produceth that Motion of Restitution that Philosophers endeavour to give a reason of As for example Air may be forced into much a lesser room then it would naturally expand itself into but whilst it is under this Violence it hath a Spring or strong Conatus to return to its proper state of which several ingenious Observations have been lately published by a Learned hand Now Sin being a Violent and preternatural state and a Sinner's returning to God and Righteousness being Motus Restitutionis Liberationis whereby the Soul is restored to its true Freedome and ancient Nature why should there not be such an Elater or Spring in the Soul quickened and enlivened by Divine Grace such a natural Conatus of returning to its proper state again Doubtless there is and the Scripture seems sometimes to acknowledge it and call it by the name of Spirit when it speaketh of our free acting in God's waies from an inward Principle For the Spirit is not alwaies to be taken for a Breath or Impulse from without but also for an inward Propension of the Soul awakened and revived in it to return to its proper state as it is Intellectual and then to act freely in it according to its ancient Nature For if the Spirit were a mere External Force acting upon the Soul without the concurrence of an Innate Principle then to be acted by the Spirit would be a state of Violence to the Soul which it could not delight alwaies to continue under whereas the state of the Spirit is a state of Freedome and not of Violence as the Apostle witnesseth when he calls it the Freedome of the Spirit It is the Soul 's acting from an inward Spring and Principle of its own Intellectual nature not by a mere outward Impulse like a Boat that is tugged on by Oars or driven by a strong blast of Wind. Wherefore the Soul 's returning from Sin to Righteousness which is its Primitive Nature must needs have great advantages it going on Secundo flumine according to the genuine Current of its true Intellectual nature and having besides the assistence of a gentle Gale of the Divine Spirit from without to help it forwards Why should it be thought so great an impossibility for men willingly to doe that which is agreeable to the Laws of Goodness since this is the genuine Nature of the Soul when once it is freed from mistakes and encumbrances from that which is heterogeneous and adventitious to it that cloggs it and oppresses it and every Life and Nature acts freely according to its own Propensions Why should it seem strange that the Superiour Faculties of the Soul should become predominant since they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Lordly nature and made to rule and the Inferiour Faculties of a servile Temper and made to be subject Why should it seem impossible for Equity Light and Reason to be inthroned in the Soul of Man again and there to command and govern those exorbitant Affections that do so lawlesly rebel against them For if some grave Commanders and Generals have been able by the Majesty of their very looks to hush and silence a disorderly and mutinous Rout of Souldiers certainly Reason re-enthroned in her Majestick Seat and re-invested with her ancient Power and Authority which is natural and not usurped would much more easily be able to check and controll the tumultuous Rabble of Lusts and Passions in us Doubtless God hath no other Design upon us in Religion and the Gospel of his Son then what is for our good and to restore us to the Rectitude and Perfection of our own Beings Wherefore he seeks to redeem and call off our Affections from the perishing Vanities of this World which being so infinitely below us do debase and pollute our Spirits wherefore he would not have us to addict ourselves wholly to the Gratifications of our lower Faculties which are but the Brute in us but he would have the Best in us to be uppermost the Man to rule the Brute and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that is of God in us to rule our Manly and Rational Faculties He would not have us Narcissus-like to be alwaies courting our own Shadow in the Stream for according to the ancient Democritical Philosophy this whole visible World is nothing else but mere extended Bulk and hath nothing Real in it but Atomes or Particles of a different Magnitude diversely placed and agitated in a continual Whirlpool But all the Colour Beauty and Varnish all that which charms and bewitches us in these Objects without us is nothing but the Vital Sensations and Relishes of our own Souls This gives all the Paint and Lustre to those Beauties which we court and fall in love withall without us which are otherwise as devoid of Reality and as Phantastical as the Colours of the Rainbow So that this Outward World is not unfitly compared to an inchanted Palace which seems indeed mighty pleasing and ravishing to our deluded Sense whereas all is but imaginary and a mere prestigious Shew Those things which we are enamoured with thinking