know not how much but I think he hath not very much of God neither fight of him nor love of him that could be content to abide for ever in this imperfect mixed low state and never be perfected in the full enjoyment of him And it seems that they in whom the love of God is rightly predominant potent flourishing do also look earnestly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 2. without doubt they ought to do 2 Pe◠3. 12. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God! Let this suffice by way of general Reprehension 2. More particularly the consideration of the Active nature of true Religion may well serve to correct a mistake about that noble grace of faith How dishonourably do some speak of this excellent and powerfull grace when they make it to be a slothfull passive thing an idle kind of waiting or a Melancholick sitting still which indeed and in truth is Life and power Be not mistaken in so high and eminent a grace True faith doth not only accept the imputed righteousness of Christ for justification but by a lively dependance upon God drinks in divine influences and eagerly sucks in grace and vertue and life from the fountain of grace for its more perfect sanctification And for this cause I think a purifying vertue is ascribed to it Act. 15. 9. Faith is not a lazy languid thing content to wait for salvation till the world to come but it is even now gasping after it and accomplishing it too in a way of mortification self-denyall and growing up in God it is not content to be a candidate waiting for life and happiness but is actually drawing down Heaven into the soul attracting God to itself sucking in participations of divine grace and image into the soul Its motto is that of the famous painter nulla dies sine lineâ it longs to find some divine lineament some line of Gods image drawn upon the soul daily Faith is a giving grace as well as receiving it gives up the whole soul to God and is troubled that it can give him no more it binds over the soul afresh to God every day and is troubled that it can bind it no faster nor closer to him The believing soul is wearyed because of muderers murdering loves lusts cares earthly pleasures and calls mightily upon Christ to come and take vengeance upon them it is wearyed because of those robbers that are daily stealing away precious time and affections from God which are due unto him and calls upon Christ to come and scourge these thieves these buyers and sellers out of his own Temple In a word the godly soul is Active and faith is the very life and Action of the soul itself Lastly Let me exhort all Christians from hence to be zealous to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord and longing after him Stir up the grace of God that is in you Quench not i. e. blow up enflame the spirit of God in you Awake Christian soul out of thy Lethargy and rejoyce as the Sun to run the race that is set before thee and as a mighty man refreshed with Wine to fight thy spiritual battels against the armies of uncircumcised prophane and earthly concupiscences love and passions Eye God as your centre the enjoyment of him as the Happiness and full conformity to him as the perfection of your souls and then say Awake Arise O my Soul and hide not thy hand in thy bosome but throw thy self into the very heart and bosome of God lay hold upon eternal life Again observe how all things in the world pursue their several perfections with unwearied and impatient longings and say come my soul and do thou likewise Converse not with God so much under the notion of a Law giver but as with love itself nor with his commands as having authority in them but as having goodness and life and sweetness in them Again consider your poverty as creatures and how utterly impossible it is for you to be happy in your selves and say Arise O my soul from off this weak and tottering foundation and build thy self up in God cease pinching thy self within the straits of self-sufficiencies and come stretch thy self upon infinite Goodness and Fulness Again pore not upon your attainments do not sit brooding upon your present accomplishments but forget the things that are behind and say Awake O my soul there is yet infinitely much more in God pursue after him for it till thou have gotten as much as a created Being is capable to receive of the divine nature In a word take heed you live not by the lowest examples which thing keeps many in a dwindling state all their dayes but by the highest Read over the Spouse her temper sick of Love Davids temper waiting for God more than they that watch for the morning breaking in heart for the longing that he had to the Lord and say Arise O my Soul and live as high as the highest it is no fault to desire to be as Good as holy as happy as an Angel of God And thus O my soul open thy mouth wide and God hath promised to fill thee CHAP. VI. That Religion is a lasting and persevering principle in the soules of men proved by several Scriptures The grounds of this perseverance assigned first negatively It doth not arise from the absolute inamissability of grace in the creature nor from the strength of mans Free-will Secondly Affirmatively the grace of election cannot fail The grace of Justification is neither suspended nor violated The Covenant of grace is everlasting The Mediator of this Covenant lives for ever The promises of it immutable The righteousness brought in by the Messiab everlasting An objection answered concerning a regenerate mans willing his own apostasie An Objection answered drawn from the falls of Saints in Scripture as also from those Scriptures that seem to imply a mans falling away A discovery of counterfeit Religion and the shamefull apostasie of false professors An encouragement to all holy diligence from the consideration of this doctrine the rather that we may stop the mouths of those that falsly affirm that the same is prejudicial to true godliness I Come now to the third property of true Religion contained in these words and that is the perseverance of it And here the foundation of my following discourse shall be this proposition True Religion is a lasting and persevering principle in the Souls of good men It is said of the hypocritical Jews that their goodness was as the early dew that soon passeth away Hos 6. 4. But that principle of true goodness which God planteth in the souls of his people is compared to a well of water evermore sending forth fresh streams and incessantly springing up towards God himself our Saviour compares hypocritical professors to seed sown upon stony ground that springs up
discovered their Fathers nakedness If we did really value our selves by our souls and our souls themselves by what they possess of the Image of God if we did rightly prefer the advancement of the Divine life before the gratification of the animal it is easie to conceive how we should prefer patience before prosperity faith in God before the favour of men spiritual purity before temporal pleasures or preferments humility before honour the denyal of our selves before the approbation of others the advancement of Gods image before the advancement of our own names an opportunity of exercising gracious dispositions before the exercising of any temporal power or secular authority and in a word the displaying of the beauty glory and perfections of God before health wealth liberty livelihood and life itself We should certainly be more indifferently affected towards any condition whether prosperity or adversity and not be so fond of the one nor weary of the other if we did verily value them only by the tendency that they had to further Religion and advance the life of Christ in our souls This would certainly make men more sincerely studious to reap Gods end in afflicting them and less longing to see the end of their afflictions And as for treacheries plottings invasions usurpations rebellions and that tumultuous zeal for Relaxation which this impatience of oppression and fondness of deliverance do so often grow up into I dare say there is nothing like Religion in the power of it for the effectual healing of them The true spirit of Religion is not so weary of oppression though it be by sinful men as it is abhorrent from deliverance if it be by sinfull means May 1 Cor. 3. 1. I not be allowed to allude to the Apostle and say whereas there is amongst you this zeal contention and faction are ye not carnal and walk as men Is not this the same which a meer natural man would do strive and struggle by right and by wrong to redeem himself from whatsoever is grievous and galling to the interest of the flesh Might it not be reasonably supposed that if Religion did but display itself aright in the powerfull actings of faith hope and humility it would quench this scalding zeal and calm these tempestuous motions of the soul and make men rather content to be delivered up to the adversary though the flesh should by him be destroyed so by the spirit might be saved and the divine life advanced in the way of the Lord. Oh how dear and precious are the possession and practice of faith patitnce humility and self-denyal to a godly soul in comparison of all the joyes and toyes treasures pleasures ease and honour of the world the safety and liberty of the flesh How much more then when these must be accomplished by wicked means and purchased at the rate of Gods displeasure And because the Kingdom of Christ is so often alleadged to defend and patronize these strange fervours and frenzies let me here briefly record to all that shall read these lines the way and method of Christ himself in propagating his own Kingdom It will not be denyed but that Christ was infinitely studious to promote his own Kingdom in the best and most proper sense But I no where read that he ever attempted it by force or fraud by violent opposition or crafty insinuation Nay he reckoned that his Kingdom was then truly promoted when these tumultuous impatient imperious proud lusts of men were mortified Nothing had been more easie with him considering his miraculous power infalsible Mat. 11. 29. wisdom and the mighty interest and party which he could by these have made for himself in the world than to have raised his own Kingdom upon the ruines of the Roman and to have quite shuffled Caesar out of the World but indeed nothing more impossible considering the perfect innocency and infinite Sacredness of his temper nor any thing more contradictious considering the proper notion of his Kingdom which he professes not be secular and so not be maintained by fighting But if you would John 18. 16. ver 37. know in what sense he was a King he himself seems to intimate it in his answer to Pilate Thou saist that I am a King to this end was I born that I should bear witness unto the truth So then it seems where ever there is truth and holiness predominant there is Christ really enthroned and actually triumphant Where Religion doth vitally inform animate and actuate mens souls it doth make them rightly to understand that the Kingdom of Christ is not the thriving of parties the strengthning of factions the advancement of any particular interest though it seem to be of never so Evangelical a complexion nor yet the proselyting of the World to the profession of Christianity or of the Christian World to the purer and more reformed profession of it though these latter would be a great external honour to the person of Christ but that it is most properly and happily propagated in the spirits of men and that where ever there is faith patience humility self denyal contempt of this world and pregnant hopes of a better pure obedience to God and sincere benignity to men here and there is the Kingdom of God Christ Regnant and the Gospel in the power and triumph of it And may not these things be and be most conspicuously in a persecuted condition of the Church That certainly was an high instance of the mighty power of the Divine life in our blessed Saviour which the Apostle Peter records of him who when he was reviled reviled not again 1 Pet. 2. 23. when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously The same divine principle dwelling plentifully in our souls would instruct us to the same behaviour according to the precept given by the same Apostle Not rendring evil 1. Pet. 3. 9. sor evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing c. How vainly do men dream that they serve the interest and advance the Kingdom of Christ by fierce and raging endeavours to cast off every yoke that galls them and kicking against every thorn that pricks them when indeed they serve the interest of the flesh and do under a fine cloak gratifie the meer animal life and Sacrifice to self-love which is as covetous of freedom from all retrenchments and confinements as Religion it self can be It is said indeed that when the Churches had rest they were edified and multiplyed but when they suffer according to the will of God they Acts 9. 31. 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 12. 19. are then glorified for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them As the Apostle Paul professes of himself in that most noble and heroical passage of his to the Corinthians Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Secondly Religion will not fail rightly to dispose the
be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting Life THis Chapter contains an excellent profitable familiar discourse of the blessed Saviour of the World into whose Lips grace was poured Psal 45. 2. and he ceased not to pour it out again That which is said of the Wise Prov. 15. 7. is fully verified of Wisdom it self His Lips dispersed Knowledge A poor Woman of Samaria comes to draw Water and our Saviour takes occasion from the Water to instruct her in the great and excellent Doctrines of the Kingdom of Heaven Oh the admirable zeal for God and compassion for Sonls which dwelt in that Divine Breast And Oh the wonderful unsearchable Councels of an all-wise God! He ordains Saul's seeking of Asses to be the means of his finding a Kingdom upon Earth and this poor Woman's seeking of Water to be an occasion of her finding the way to the Kingdom of Heaven She comes to the Well of Jaceb and behold she meets with the God of Jacob there The Occasion Passages and Issue of this Discourse would each afford many good and profitable Observations But I think none more than this verse that I have pitch'd upon in which the mystery of Gospel-Grace is rarely unfolded and true Christian Religion is excellently described For so I understand our Saviour not as speaking of Faith or Knowledge or any other particular Grace but of Grace in general of the holy Spirit of God that is the Gifts and Graces of it of true Godliness or if you will of Christian Religion for that word I shall choose to retain throughout my Discourse as being most intelligible and comprehensive In which words we find true Christian Religion unfolded in the original nature properties consequent and end of it The original of it is found in those words I shall give him The nature of it is described by a Well of Water The properties of it will be found in the phrase of springing up The consequent of it that the man that is endued with it shall never thirst The end or perfection of it is everlasting Life Of all these by Gods assistance in this order First I begin with the Original of it as it seems meet I should for indeed it is first found in the words The Water that I shall give him And here the Proposition that I shall go upon must be That True Christion Religion is of a Divine Original All Souls are indeed the Off-spring of God Those Noble Faculties oâ— Vnderstanding and a Will free from constraint do more resemble the nature of God than all the World besides There is more of the glory beauty and brightness of God in a Soul than there is in the Sun it self The Apostle allows it as a proper speech spoken in common of all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act 17. 28. God hath derived more lively prints of himself and his Divine Essence upon a rational Soul than he hath upon the whole Creation so that the Soul of man even as to its constitution doth declare and discover more of the rature of God than all the other things that he hath made whereof the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 20. He that rightly converseth with his own Soul wâ—ll get more acquaintarce with God than they that gaze conâ—â—ually upon the material Heavens or traverse the dark and uâ—most corners of the Earth or go down unto the Sea in Ships the sâ—rious consideration of the little World will teach more of him than the great one could do So that I doubt not to take the Apostles words concerning the Word of God and apply them to the Nature of God Rom. 10. Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring a discovery of God from thence or who shall descend into the Deep to fetch it up from thence The Nature and Essence of God is nigh thee even in thine own Soul excellently displayed in the Constitution and Frame Powers and Faculties thereof God hath not made any Creaâ—uâ—e so capable of receiving and â—â—flecting his Image and Glory as Angels and Men Which hath made me often to say That the vilest Soul of Man is much more beautiful and honourable than the most excellent Body than the very Body of the Sun at noon day And by the way this may render Sâ—n odious and loaâ—h some because It hath defiled the fairest piece of Gods Workmanshâ—p in the World and blurâ—ed the clearest Copy which he had drawn of himself in the whole Creation But though all rational Souls be the Children of God yet all of them do not imiâ—ate their Father though their Constitution do express much of the Essence of God yet their Disposition doth express the Image of the Devil But godly Souls who are followers of God are indeed his dear Children Ephes 5. 1. Holy Souls who are endued with a divine and god like disposition and do work the workâ— of God these are most truly and properly his Off spring Mat. 5. 44 45. And in this respect God's Children are his workmanship created unto good Works Ephes 2. 10. Religion is of a Divine Original God is the Author and Father of it both from without and from within 1. God is the Author of it from without When Man had sallen from God by sin and so had lost his way and was become both unwilling and unable to return God was pleased to set up that glorious Light his own Son the Sun of Righteousness in the World that he might guide their feet into the way of peace who is therefore called A Light to lighten the Gentiles Luk. 2. 32. and compared to a Candle set upon a Candlestick Mark 4. 21. God of his infinite free grace and over-flowing goodness provided a Mediator in and by whom these Apostate Souls might be reconciled and re-united to himself and to as many as receive him to them he giveth power to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. Yet further It pleased God in his infinite Wisdom and Mercy to chalk out the way of Life and Peace in the holy Scriptures and therein to unlock the secrets of Salvation to succeeding generations Herein he hath plainly laid down the terms of the Covenant of Peace which was made in the Mediator and given Precepts and Promises for the direction and encouragement of as many as will enquire into the same These are the sacred Oracles which give clear and certain answers to all that do consult them about their future state Rom. 3. 2. Christ Jesus opened the way into the holiest of all and the Scriptures they come after and point it out unto us He purchased life and immortality and these bring it to light 2 Tim. 1. 10. And yet further That these might not be mistaken or perverted to mens destruction which were ordain'd for their salvation which sometimes doth come to pass 2 Pet. 3. 16. God hath been pleased to commit these Records into the hands of his Church and therein to his Ministers whom
to be esteemed 2 Kin. â—0 16. were indeed rather Fury than Zeal and proceeded more from his own fiery spirits than from that spirit of Fire or spirit of burning which is of God Isa 4. 4. But commonly this forc'd devotion is jejune and dry void of zeal and warmth drives on heavily in pursuit of the God of Israel as Pharaoh did in pursuit of the Israel of God when his Chariot wheels were taken off Exod. 14. Gods drawing the Soul from within as a principle doth indeed cause that soul to run after him Cant. 1. 4. but you know the motion of those things that are drawn by exâ—ernal force is commonly heavy slow and languid 2. This forc'd Relâ—gion is penurious and needy Something the slavish spirited Christian must do to appease an angry God or to allay a storming conscience as I hâ—nâ—ed before but it shall be as little as may be He is ready to gâ—ndge God so much of his time and strength and to find fault that Sabbaths come so thick and last so long and that duties are to be performed sâ— often so he is described by the Prophet Amoâ— 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be past and the new Moon gone But yet I will not deny but that this kind of Religion may be very liberal and expensive too and run out much into the branches of external duties as is the manner of many trees that bear no fâ—uit for so did the base spirit of the Pharisees whose often fasting and long praying is recorded by our Saviour in the Gospel but not with approbation Therefore these are not the things by which you must take measure and make estimate of your Religion But in the great things of the Law in the grand duties of mortification self denyal and resignation here this forc'd Religion is alwayes very stingy and penurious In the duties that do nearly touch upon their beloved lâ—sts they will be as strict with God as may be they will break with him for a small matter God must have no more than his due as they blasphemously phrase it in their hearts with the slothful servant in the Gospel Lo there thou hast that is thine self and the world sure may be allowed the rest They will not part with all for Christ Matth. 19. 22. is it not a little one let me escape thither and take up my abode there said Lot Gen. 19. They will not give up themselves eâ—tirely unto God the Lord pardon me in this one thing cryes Naaman so they in this or that let God hold me excused The slavish spirited Christian is never more shrunk up within himself than when he is to converse with God indeed But the Godly soul is never freer larger gladder than when he doth most intimately and familiarly converse with God The Soul that is Free as to liberty is free also as to liberality and expences and thatnot only in external but internal and spiritual obedience and complyance with the will of God he gives himself wholly up to God knows no interest of his own keeps no reserve for himself or for the Creature 3. This forc'd Religion is uneven as depending upon inconstant causes As land-floods that have no spring within themselves vary their motions are swift and slow high and low according as they are supplyed with rain even so these mens motions in Religion depending upon Fancy for the most part than which nothing is more fickle and flitting have no constancy nor consistency in them I know indeed that the spirits of the best men cannot alwayes keep one pace nor their lives be alwayes of one piece but yet they are never willingly quite out of the call or compass of Religion But this I also toucht upon formerly Therefore 4. The forc'd Religion is not permanent The Meteors I will down again and be choakt in the earth whence they arose Take away the weight and the motion ceases take away 〈◊〉 and Joash â—lands 〈◊〉 yeâ—â— runs backwards But this I shall speak more unto when I come to speak of the last property of Religion viz. its performance CHAP. IV. The active and vigorous nature of true Religion proved by many Scriptural phrases of the most powerful importance more particularly explained in three things First In the Soulâ— continual care and study to be good Secondly In its care to do good Thirdly In its powerful and incessant longings after the most full enjoyment of God In all which the causes and reasons of the same are either more obsâ—urely intimated or openly assigned I Come now to the Second property of true Religion which is to be found in this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 springing up or leaping up wherein the Activity and vigorousuass of it is described Religion though it be compared to water yet is no standing pool of water but a well of water springing up And here the proposition that I shall go upon is that True Religion is active and vigorous It is no lazy and languid thing but full of life and power so I find it every where described in Scripture by things that are most active lively vigorous operative spreading powerful and sometimes even by motion it self As sin is in Scripture described by death and darkness which are a cessation and privation of life and light and motion so Religion is described by life which is active and vigorous by an Angelical life which is spiritual and powerful yea a divine life Ephes 4. 18. which is as I may say most lively and vivacious Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. and the production of this new nature in the Soul is called a quickning Ephes 2. 1. and the reception of it a passing from death unto life Joâ— 5. 24. Again as sin and wickedness is described by flesh which is sluggish and unactive so this holy principle in the soul is called spirit Gal. 5. 17. the spirit lusâ—eth against the flesh yea the spirit of power 2 Tim. 1. 6. and the spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death How can the power and activity of any principle be more commended than by saying it is life and the spirit of life and the law of the spirit of life in the soul which hath made me sometimes to apply those words of the Prophet as a description of every godly soul Mic. 3. 8. I am full of power and might by the spirit of the Lord. Yea further the holy Apostle seems to describe a godly principle in the soul by activity and motion itself Phil. 3. 12 13 14. where he gives this excellent character of himself and this lively description of his religious disposition as if it were nothing else but activity and fervour I follow after that I may apprehend I forget those things that are behind and reach forth unto those things that are before I press towards the mark c. It were too much
of the Sun and turning itself every way towards it wellcoming its warm and refreshing beams Elijah passing by Elisha as he was at plough and catching him with his mantle is but a scant resemblâ—nce of the blessed God passing by a carnal mind and wrapping it in the mantle of his love and thereby causing it to run yea to flye swiftly after him If divine grace do but once touch the soul the soul presently sticks to it as the needle to the Loadstone They that heard Christ Jesus chiding the winds and the waves cryed out what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him But if one had been present when he called James and John from their nets Matthew from the Custome-house and Zaâ—heus from the tree and by calling made them willing to come would have cryed oâ—t sure what manner of God is this that by his bare word makes poor men leave their trades and livelyhood and rich men their gainfull exactions usuries oppressions to follow him and shews them no reason why What a mighty vertue is there in the oyntment of Christs name that as soon as it is poured out the Virgins fall in love with him Cant. 1. 3 Micah cryed out when he was in pursuit of his Gods and should they ask him what ailed him And will ye wonder that a holy Soul in pursuit of the holy God should be â—arnest that he should run and cry as he runs as I have seen a fond child whom the father or mother have endeavoured to leave behind them God breathing into the Soul makes the Soul breath after him and in a mixture of holy disdâ—in and anger to thrust away from itself all distracting companions occasions and concernments saying with Ephraim to her Idols Get ye hence The Soul thus inspired is so far from prostituting it self to any â—arthly sensual selfish lusts and loves that it cannot brook any thing that would weaken it in the prosecution of the highest good it is impatient of every thing that would either stop or slacken its motions after God The godly man desires still to be doing something for God indeed but if the case so fall out that he cannot spend his life for God as he desires yet he will be spending his soul upon him though he cannot perpetually abide upon the knee of prayer yet he would be continually upon the wing of faith and love when his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth that he cannot speak for God yet his Soul shall cleave unto him and complain because it can speak no longer For faith and love are kniâ—â—ing graces and do long to make the soul as much one with their object as is possible for the creature to be with its Creator Religion puts a restless appetiâ—e into the soul after a higher good and makes it to throw itself into his arms and wind itself into his embraces longing to be in a more intimate conjunction with him or rather entirely wrapt up in him Itself is an unsatiable and covetous principle in the soul much like to the daughter of the horseleech crying continually Give Give what the Prophet speaks rhetorically of Hell Isa 50. is also true concerning this off-spring of Heaven in the Soul it enlargeth it self and openeth its mouth without measure The spirit of true godliness seems to be altogether such that it cannot rest in any measures of grace or be fully contented with any of its attainments in this life but ardently longs to receive the more plentiful communications of love the more deep and legible impressions of grace the more clear and ample experiences of divine assistance the more sensible evidences of divine favour the more powerfull and ravishing illapses and incoms of divine consolation into itself let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth Cant. 1. 2. such is the spirit of true godliness that the weakest that is indued with it longs to be as David and the Davids to be as God as the Angel of the Lord according to that promise Zach. 12. 8. The godly soul that is in his right senses under the powerfull apprehensions of the loveliness of God and the beauty of holiness cannot be content to live by any lower instance than that of David whose soul even broke for the longing that it had unto the Lord Psal 119. 20 or that of the spouse who was even sick of love Cant. 2. 5. You have read of the Mother of Sisera looking out at the window waiting for his coming and crying through the lattess why is his Chariot so long in coming why tarry the wheels of his Chariots But this is not to be compared to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earnest expectation of the creature the new creature waiting sort he manifestation of God which the Apostle elegantly expresseth and yet seems â—o labour for words as if he could not sufficiently express it neither Rom. 8. 23. you have read of the Israelites marching up towards the promised land and murmuring that they were held so long in the wilderness But the true Israelitish Soul makes more hast with less discontent marches as under the conduct of the Angel of Gods presence and longs to arrive at its rest But alas it is held in the wilderness too and therefore cannot be fully quiet in itself but sends forth spyes to view the land the scouts of Faith and Hope like Caleb and Joshua those men of another spirit and these go and walk through the holy land and return home to the soul and come back not as Noahs dove with an Olive leaf in her mouth but with some clusters in their hands they bring the soul a taste of the good things of the Kingdom of the glories of her eternal state yea the soul self marches up to possess the land goes out with the spouse in the Canticles to meet the Lord to seek him whom her soul loveth Religion is a sacred fire kept burning in the temple of the soul continually which being once kindled from Heaven never goes out but burns up Heaven-wards as the nature of fire is this fire is kept alive in the soul to all eternity though sometimes through the ashes of earthly cares and concernments cast into it or the Sun of earthly prosperity shining upon it it may sometimes burn more dimly and seem almost as if it were quite smothered this fire is for sacrifice too though sacrifice be not alwayes offered upon it the same fire of faith and love which offered up the morning Sacrifice is kept alive all the day long and is ready to kindle the evening Sacrifice too when the appointed time of it shall come In this chariot of fire it is that the soul is continually carryed out towards God and accomplisheth a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or glorification daily and when it finds iâ— self firmly seated and swiftly carryed herein it no longer envies the translation of Elias The spirit of sanctification is
in the soul as a burning fire shut up in the bones which makes the soul weary with forbearing and so powerfull in longings that it cannot stay as the spirit of prophesie is described Jer. 20. it is more true of the spirit of God than of the spirit of Elihâ— the spirit within constraineth and even dresseth the soul so that it is ready to swoun and faint away for very vehemence of longing Sâ—e the amâ—rous spouse falling into one of these fainting fiâ—s Cant. 2. 5. and crying out mainly for some cordial from Heaven to keep up her sinking spirits Stay me with flaggons straw me with apples for I am sick of love Oh beautifull and blessed fight a soul working towards God gasping and longing and labouring after its proper happiness and perfection Well the sinking soul is relieved Christ Jesus reacheth forth his left hand to her head and his right hand embraceth her and now she recovers her hanging hands lift up themselves and the 〈◊〉 of her â—ading complex on 〈◊〉 restored now she sits down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit is sweet unto her taste See here the fairest sight on this side Heaven a soul resting and glorying and spreading itself in the arms of God growing up in him growing great in him growing full in his fulness and perfectly ravished with his pure love O my soul be not content to live by any lower instance did not our hearts burn within us said the two Disciples one to the other whilest he talked with us But the soul in which the sacred fire of love is powerfully kindled doth not only burn towards God whilest he is more familiarly present with it and as it were blows upon it but if he seem to withdraw from it it burns after him still my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone I sought him I called him Cant. 5. 6. And if the fire begin to languish and seem as if it would go out the holy soul is startled presently and labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks to revive it and blow it up again calls upon itself to awake to arise and pursue to mend its pace and to speed its heavy and sluggish motions This divine active principle in the soul maintains a continual striving a holy strugling and streâ—ching forth of the soul towards God a bold and ardent contention after the supreâ—m good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religien hath the strength of the Divinity in it its motions towards its object are quick and potent That elegant description which the Prophet makes of the wicked heart with some change may be brought livâ—â—ly to express this excellent temper of the godly soul it is like the working Sea which cannot â—est and although its waters do not cast up mire and dirt yet in a holy impatience they rise and swell and cast up a froth and some towards Heaven In a word that I may comprize many things in few expressions no man so ambitious as the humble none so covetous as the heavenly-minded none so voluptuous as the self-denying Religion gives a largeness and wideness to the soul which sin and self and the world had straightned and confined But his Ambition is only to be great in God his Covetousness is only to be filled with all the fulness of God and his voluptuousness is only to drink of the rivers of his pure pleasures He desires to taste the God whom he sees and to be satisfied with the God whom he tastes Oh now how are all the faculties of the soul awakened to attendance upon the Lord of life It hearkens for the sound of his feet coming the noise of his hands knocking at the door it stands upon its watch tower waiting for his appearing waiting more earnestly than they that watch for the morning and rejoyces to meet him at his coming and having met him runs into his arms kisses him holds him and will not let him goe but brings him into the house and entertains him in the guest-chamber The soul complains that itself is not large enough that there is not room enough to entertain so glorious a guest no not though it have given him all the room that it hath It entertains him with the widest arms and the sweetest smiles and if he depart and withdraw fetches him again with the deepest groans Return Return O Prince of Peace and make me an everlasting habitation of righteousness unto thy self It will not be amiss here briefly to touch upon the Reason of the godly souls so ardent pantings after God And here I might shew first negatively that it springs not from any carnal ambition of being better and higher than others not from any â—arnal hope of impunity and safety nor meerly from the bitter sense of pressing and tormenting afflictions in this life But I shall rather insist upon it affirmatively These earnest breathings 〈◊〉 God spring from the feeling apprehensions of self-indigency and insufficiency and â—â—e powerful sense of divine goodness and fulness they are begotten of the divine Bounty and self sufficiency manifesting itself to the spirits of men and conceived and brought forth by a deep sense of selfpoverty one might almost apply the Apostles words to this purpose we receive the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in him I shall not discourse upon these two heads disjunctly but frame them into one notion and so you may take it thus these holy longings of the godly soul after God do arise from the sense of its distance from God To be so far distant from God who is life and love itself and the proper and full happiness of the soul is grievous to the soul that is rightly affected towards him and hence it is that the soul cannot be at rest but still longs to be more intimately joyned to him and more perfectly filled with him and the clearer the souls apprehensions are of its object and the deeper its sense is of its own unlikeness to him and distance from him the more strong and impatient are its breathings insomuch that not only fear as the Apostle speaks but even love itself sometimes seems to itself to have a kind of agony and torment in itself which made the spouse cry she was sick of love that is sick of every thing that kept her from her love sick of that distance at which she stood from her beloved Lord. The godly soul being ravisht with the infinite sweetness and goodness of God longs to be that rather than what itself iâ— and beholding how it is estranged from him by many sensual loves selfish passions corporal clogs and distractions bewails its distance and cryes out within itself Oh when shall I come and appear before God! Oh when will God come and appear gloriously to me and in me who will deliver me from this body of death Oh that mortality were swallowed up of life Davids soul did wait for God as earnestly
Jesus Christ hath implanted in it And if there be any other circumstance which cannot be reduced to one of these kinds I suppose it may be reckoned amongst the objects and gratifications of the animal life and not to make up any part of the godly man's Heaven or that Eternal Life which Religion springs up into For I do easily imagine that a fleshly fancy may verily be mightily ravisht with the desire of such a Heaven as is suitable to it and that a meer animal man may be as heartily desirous to be in such a Kingdom of God as he hath shaped out to himself as he is utterly unwilling that the true Kingdom of God such as the Apostle describes Rom. 14. 17. consisting in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost should be in him If our continual cry be after safety self-preservation liberty redemption and deliverance from those things only that oppress and grieve our fleshly interest and our thirstings principally terminated in Knowledge though it be of God himself freedom from condemnation power over Devils yea or any visible pomp glory or splendour though it be of never so aethereal and heavenly a nature what do we more than others what is all this more than may naturally spring up from the animal life and be ultimately resolved into carnal self Wherefore as a result from the whole discourse especially from this last part of it let me earnestly entreat all the professors of this holy Religion which the blessed Messiah Christ Jesus hath so dearly bought for the world and so clearly revealed in it not to value themselves by any thing which the power of natural self-love may exert or desire perform or expect nor by any thing below the image of God and the internal and transforming manifestations of Christ Jesus in them the perfection of which is eternal life in the most proper and true notion of it as you have heard I know that I have often suggested the same lesson in this short treatise but I know also that I can never inculcate it often enough nay the eloquence of Angels is not sufficient to imprint it upon the hearts of men Possibly it may startle some hypocritical professors and carnal-Gospellers God grant it may effectually and make the ears of many that hear it to tingle but yet I will proclaim it It is possible for a man to desire not only the things of this world which Sâ— James speaks of Jam. 4. 3. But even Heaven it self to consume it upon his lusts and he may as truly be making provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof in longing after a kind of self-salvation as in eating and drinking and rising up to play Certainly a true Christian spirit rightly â—nvigorated and actuated by this divine and potent principle Christian Religion cannot look upon Heaven as meerly future or as something perfectly distinct from him but he eyes it as life eternal life the perfection of the purest and divinest life communicable to a soul and is daily thirsting after it or rather as it is in the Text growing up into iâ— I know that Heaven is sometimes called a Rest in opposition to the dissatisfaction of the unâ—entred and unbelieving soul but in opposition to a sluggish inert and dormient rest it is here said to be life eternal life Let us shew our selves to be living Christians by springing up into the utmost consummation of life Let it appear that Christ Jesus the Prince of Life who was manifested on purpose to take away our sins 1 Joh. 3. 5. hath not only covered our shame and as it were embalmed our dead souls to keep them from putrefaction and stâ—â—wed them with the flowers of his merits to take away their noisome stink from the nostrils of his Father but hath truly advanced reâ—instated and made to flourish the souls that sin had so miserably degraded and deflowred Deliver your selves O immortal souls from all those unsuitable and unseemly cares studies and joys from all those low and particular ends and lusts which do not only pinch and straiten but even debase and debauch you Let it not be said that the King of Sodom made Abraham rich that your main delight happiness and contenâ—â—ent is derived from any prosperous plentiful peaceable pompous state any thing that may be called a self-accommodation either in the world that now is or that which is to come but from the righteousness of Faith and your vital union with the Father and the Son To whom in the unity of the spirit be honour and glory world without end Amen 1 John 1. 3. Our fâ—llowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ THese words do express the way of a Christians living and that kind of Converse whereby a good man is distinguished from all other men A good man is not differenced from other men by any thing without him any Church Priviledges which are common to hypocrites and sincere Christians any external visible performances in which the Disciples of the Pharisees may be more abundant and more specious than the Disciples of Christ Mat. 9. 14. much less by any corporal or temporal enjoyment or ornament strength beauty riches descent c. nor by any carnal relation though it were to Abraham as the Jews bragg'd of their Father Abraham Joh. 8. 33. but by something internal substantial by a relation to God The character of a good man must be fetcht from his correspondence to the chief good and the happiness of a soul must be judged of by its relation to life and love and blessedness it self Things external corporal temporal make some difference amongst men but it is but nominal and titular in comparison By these men are said to be rich or poor noble or ignoble but men are really and substantially differenced by the relation that they have to God by this they are good or bad Godly or wicked This is the most certain and proper note of a good man viz. communion with God In all other things he may be liâ—e other men but in this he differs from and excells them all This is a character proper quarto modo for it agrees to every good man to none but a good man and alwayes to him as we shall see hereafter The ground of my discourse then shall be this short and plain Proposition viz. A godly man hath communion with God In order to the more distinct handling hereof I must premise a few things briefly 1. That the gracious and loving God made nothing miserable of all that he had made There are no slaves born in his great house of the world He made all things out of himself and he hath no idea of evil in himself so that it was not possible that he should make any thing evil or miserable Every thing was good Gen. 1. and so in some sense happy He was free to make the world but making it he could not make it evil or
of prayer Faith can pray without words but the most elegant words the phrase of Angels is not worthy to be called prayer without faith I speak not so much of faith inditing a prayer or giving life to it as of its being vertually prayer if not something more for indeed faith is a real bringing down of that God and sucking in of those influences into the soul which prayer only looks up for Communion with God is a continual fast it is that spiritual and most excellent way of fasting whereby the soul emptying it self of it self and all self-fullness self-sufficiency self-confidence receives of the fulness of God alone and is filled therewith A soul communing rightly with God is a soul emptied of and as it were fasting from it self which is the most excellent way of fasting It is a continual thanksgiving and indeed the best way of thanksgiving in the world To render up our selves to God purely and entirely to reflect the glory of God in an holy and godlike temper is a real and living thank-offering This is that Hallelujah so much spoke of which the Angels and Saints in glory do sing perpetually what other adjunct of it there may be I will not here dispute This communion of hearts and wills is a constant and most excellent celebration of Sacraments The Soul that is really Baptized into the spirit of the Lord Jesus and feeds upon God and is one with him keeps a continual Sacrament without which the Sacramental eating and drinking is but a jejune and dry devotion In a word it is not possible for any thing that is extrinsecal to the soul to make it happy but the soul that is advanced into the noble state of communion with God is made partaker of a new nature and is truly happy Nay further I will add that this communion with God is not only better than all duties and ordinances but even better than all revelations evidences discoveries that can be made or given to the soul ab extra all that are from without a manifestation of God i. e. of a divine life in the soul is much better than such a manifestation as Moses had of his glory in the cleft of the Rock Exod. 34. Many think oh if they might but be assured of the love of God of the pardon of fin of an interest in Christ they should be happy why I will tell you if you had a voice from Heaven saying that ye were the beloved Children of God as Christ had an Angel sent from God to tell you that ye were beloved and highly favoured of God as his Mother Mary had yet were communion with God to be preferred before these For these things could not make a soul happy without real communion with God but communion with God can and doth make a soul happy without these And to this purpose I suppose I may apply that famous speech of our Saviour's by way of allusion It is more blessed to give than to receive to give up ones self ones heart will interests and affections to God than to receive any external discoveries and manifestations from him Why do we so earnestly seek after signs from without us of Gods presence with us as if there were any thing better or more desirable to the soul than Emanuel God with us or as the Apostle speaks Christ in us the hope of glory He that desires any other evidence of grace but more grace dos not only light up a candle to see the Sun by but indeed he acts like one that thinks there is something better than God himself though I do not say that all do think so who are covetous of such manifestations But this I will say and you may do well to chew upon it that holy longings after a true and spiritual communion with God do certainly spring from a divine principle in the soul whereas a thirst after assurance of Gods love and reconciliation of our persons with him may be only the fruit of self-love and interest Let me dye the death of the Righteous you know whose wish it was 7. Though communion with God do concern the whole soul and all the faculties affections and motions of it it is Gods spreading his influences and exercising his Soveraignty over all the powers of the soul and their mutual spending of themselves upon him and conforming to him yet the great Acts of the soul whereby it chiefly holds communion with God are loving and Believing Love is the joyning and knitting of the soul to God Faith is the souls labouring after more intimate conjunction with him a sucking in influences from him and participations of him into the Soul We may say that faith fetches in supplies from Heaven and Love enjoyes them faith sucks in sweetness and vertue from Christ and love feeds upon it Certainly these two eminent graces grow and live and thrive together and are inseparable companions It is somewhat difficult to distinguish them or to assign to each his proper place and work in the soul they seem mutually to act and to be mutually acted by each other perhaps the Apostle might have respect to this mystery when he speaks so doubtfully Gal. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words may be translated either Faith acting by love or faith acted by love We know indeed that in the state of perfect communion which we call glory love shall abide and flourish more abundantly and there shall be no room for faith there not as to the principal act of it but whether hath the greater part in maintaining our communion with God in this world is not easie nor indeed needfull to determine The godly soul is the most proper Temple wherein God dwelleth according to that 2 Cor. 6. 16. Ye are the Temple of the living God Faith and Love are the Jachin and Boaz the two great Pillars which keep up the Soul as a Temple take away these and it remains a soul indeed but the soul dos not remain a Temple to the Lord. In a word these two are the souls principal handmaids which she useth about this blessed guest Faith goes out and brings him in and Love entertains him by faith she finds him whom she seeks and by love she kisses him whom she finds as the spouse is described Cant. 8. 1. 8. The communion that is between God and the godly Soul is altogether different from that communion that is between creatures Here I might shew you how it exceeds and excells that in many respects but I shall not insist upon any of those particulars nor indeed upon any of those many differences that are between them save only upon this one The communion that is between creature and creature is perfect in its kind and so consequently gives mutual satisfaction I mean it terminates the expectations so that nothing remains to be enjoyed in them more than what is enjoyed The creature is shallow and soon fathomed we soon come to the bottom of it A
this spring from a Religious principle think ye or a selfish Doth it not agree well to the animal life and natural self to be tender of its own interest and concernments to wish well to its own safety to defend it self from violence May I not allude to our Saviours words and say If ye hate them that hate you Mat. 5. 46. how can that be accounted Religious Do not even the Publicans the same I doubt we know not sufficiently what spirit we should be of The power of Religion rightly prevailing in the soul would mold us into another kind of temper it would teach us as well to love and pitty and pray for Papists Mat. 5. 44. Rev. 19. 20 21. as to hate Popery I know the Prophesie indeed that the Beast and the false Prophet shall be cast alive into the lake burning with brimstone and the remnant shall be slain with the sword of him that sate upon the horse But in as much as that sword is said to proceed out of his mouth I would Eph. 6. 17. Hos. 6. 5. gladly interpret it of the word of God which kills men unto Salvation However let the interpretation of that Text and others of the like importance be what it will I reckon it very unsafe to turn all the Prophesies and threatnings of God into Prayers lest haply we should be found to contribute to the damning of mens souls Yea when all is 2 Thes 2. 12. said concerning the reprobating decrees of God and his essential inflexible punitive justice and all those Texts that seem to speak of Gods revenging himself with delight are interpreted to the utmost harshness of meaning that the cruel wit of man can invent yet it remains a sealed and to me a sweet truth I have no pleasure in the Ezek. 18. 32. chap. 33. 11. death of him that dyeth saith the Lord God and again As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Wherefore to wave all those dreadfull glosses that do rather describe the bitter and revengefull ingeny of man that makes them than interpret the pure and perfect nature of God upon whom they are made let us attend to that beautiful character that is every where given of Religion which is Exod. 32. 32. Numb 11. 29. Rom. 92 3. Luke 19. 10. Acts 10. 38. Rom. 5. 6. our highest concernment in the person of Moses of Paul and of Christ Jesus himself the Author and exemplar of it who by his incarnation life and death abundantly demonstrated the infinite Benignity and compassionate ardours of his soul towards us when we were worse than Papists as being out of a possibility of salvation without him and let that mind be in us which was in him also Though it be not directly our Saviours meaning in my Text yet I believe it is reductâ—vely that this pure and divine principle Religion springs up into everlasting life not only our own but other mens also But however Religion is described sure I am it is most unnatural to the Religious soul that is regenerated into the pure spirit of piety pitty and universal charity to be of a cruel fierce revengeful damning disposition And therefore whatever are the Ranting and Wrathful strains of some mens Devotions I beseech the Reader to endeavour with me that Charity towards mens souls may go along in conjunction with zeal and piety towards God when we present our selves before the throne of his grace And so I am confident it will if we pray sincerely to this purpose viz. That God would cause the wickedness of the wicked to come to an end that he would consume the Antichrist but Convert the Papist and make the wonderers after the beast to become followers of the Lamb I doubt there are many that think they can never be too liberal in wishing ill to the Papists nay they count it a notable argument of a good Protestant I had almost said an evidence of grace to be very raging and invective against them Alas how miserably do we bewray our selves in so doing to be nothing less than what we pretend to by doing it For are not we our selves herein Antichristian whilest we complain of their cruelties our own souls in the very act boyling over with Revengefull and scalding affections If we do indeed abhor their cruelty because it is contrary to the holy precepts of the Gospel and the true Kingdom of Christ we ought to be as jealous at the same time lest any thing like unto it should be found in our selves otherwise are we not carnal For meer nature as I have often said will abhor any thing that is contrary to it self and will not willingly suffer its delicate interest to be toucht The Apostle tells us that no man speaking by the Spirit of Christ calleth Christ accursed 1 Cor 12. 3. But I doubt it is common to curse Antichrist and yet by a spirit that is Antichristian I mean carnal selfish cruel and uncharitable For there is a spiritual Antichrist or if you will in the Apostles phrase a Spirit of Antichrist as well as a political 1 John 4. 3. Antichrist and I doubt the former prevails most in the world though it be least discerned and bann'd Men do by Antichrist as they do by the Devil defie him in words but entertain him in their hearts run away from the appearance of him and in the mean time can be well enough content to be all that in very deed which the Devil and Antichrist is All this evidently appears to be for want of the true power and spirit of Religion which I commend for so great a healer even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our distempers Perhaps no Papist will find in his heart to read this Epistle written by a Heretick yet possibly too some one or other may therefore I will adventure briefly to prescribe this same medicinal Divinity to them also though perhaps I might be excused upon another account all that which I have hitherto said to distempered Protestants being rightly enough mutatis mutandis applicable to them But moreover whereas they value their Church and the truth and rightness of it by its universality and prosperity the power of Religion would make men to value themselves and their adherents only by the divine impressions of piety and purity and to account such only worthy of the glorious title of Apostolical and children of God who are sincere followers of the Apostles wherein they were followers of Christ viz. in true holiness and righteousness Are they industrious and zealous for the Proselyting of the world and spreading of their interest far and near And are not all wicked men yea and the Devil himself so too The fairest and most flourishing state of a Church is nothing to God and so consequently not to a godly soul in comparison of those excellent divine beauties wherewith Religion adorneth the world But whereas the greatest
that all men in the world do live in God Act. 17. 28. yet it is also true that most men as the same Apostle speaks elsewhere do live without God in the world have their hearts staked down to one creature or other and so fall short of this honourable character which the Apostle here gives of godly men our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And now I shall wrap up the remainder of this Discourse in an humble request and earnest expostulation Reckon not upon any happiness below this communion There are many things which a Christian may take to be comforts but only one this one that he ought to take to be the Happiness of his life I design not to speak any thing to the prejudice of natural or civil ornaments or accomplishments much less to the dispaâ—â—gement of any of those endowments or employments which are in a sense spiritual commonly called gifts and duties But I must confess it is one of the great wonders of the world to me to see such a noble and intelligent Being as the soul of man is attending to and pursuing after things either extrinsecal or inferiour to it self in the mean time carelesly forgetting or wilfully rejecting its main happiness principal end and proper perfection As for those sensual persons those meer Animals whose souls are incarnate in their senses and seem to perform no higher office in the world than the souls of beasts that is to carry about their bodies who value themselves by their bodies or which is baser by the apparel that cloaths them or the estates that feed them I shall not now trouble my self about them but leave them to be chastised by Seneca or Plutarch or indeed any ordinary Philosopher I shall rather apply my self a little to a sort of higher spirited people whom by a 〈◊〉 dâ—-scension of charity we call Christians who valuing themselves by external professions priviledges performances may indeed be said to be somewhat more scrupulous and curious but no less mistaken than the former for if the grosser sort of sensualists do deny and professedly abjure their own reasons and the finer sort of hypocrites do more cunningly bribe theirs each method amounts to no more than a cheat and both parties will be alike miserable save that the latter will be somewhat more tormented in â—issing of a happiness which he lâ—â—k'd and hop'd for It is not proper to my pâ—esent discourse to speak so highly and honourably of these externals of Christianity nor to press unto them so zealously as I do at all times when I have occasion for I do verily value all ordinances of Christ and duties of Gods worship at a high rate nay I know not any serious and truly godly soul in the world but is of this same profession with me But I must confess I think it is one of the greatest and most pernicious cheats in the world for men to feed upon the dish instead of the meat to place their happiness in those things which God hath only appointed to be means to convey it This was the great destruction of the Jewish Church by this they perished Thus they are every where described in Scripture as a people resting in their priviledges and performances boasting of their Sacrifices and Temple-service they made account of a strange kind of flesh-pleasing Heaven something distinct from them and reserved for them to be given them by way of reward for the righteousness which themselves had wrought by the power of their own free-will which freewill they say is an effect of mans fall but they make it a cause of mans rise for now he can purchase and merit a happiness which happiness is also more illustrious than that given of meer grace which righteousness if we look either into their own writings or Gods writings concerning them we shall find was nothing else but a strict observance of the precepts of the law according to the letter and external dispensation of it Such a low and legal spirit was generally found amongst the Jews I wish the greatest part of us who are in profession and name evangelical be not found as truly legal in spirit and temper as they were If we cry the Gospel of Christ the Gospel of Christ with the same spirit as they cryed the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord our confidence will as surely betray us into a final misery as theirs did True indeed Prayers Sacraments Sermons are somewhat finer words than the old obsolete ones the Law Sacrifices Ceremonies but alas they are but words at least they are not Gods no more fit to terminate our devotions and affections than these I beseech you therefore Christians be not mistaken in this matter True Christianity is not a notion but a nature that is not Religion which is lapt up in Books or laid up in mens brains but it is laid in the very constitution of the soul a new principle implanted by God in the highest powers of the soul refining and spiritualizing all the faculties thereof and rendring them as like to God himself as such a creature can resemble its Creator It is a truth as clear as the Sun is clear that nothing can make a Soul truly happy but what is wrought into the nature of it and that must be somewhat more excellent than it self and that can be nothing less than something divine even the image of the blessed God If you be Christians in deed and in truth value all the ordinances of God and the duties of Christian Religion but value not your selves by these your happiness by these Attend upon them all for the maintaining and encreasing of real fellowship with God for though these be not it yet they aâ—â— the way wherein it pleases God 〈◊〉 give it drink the sincere 〈…〉 the Word but let it be only 〈…〉 holy design of growing thereby of growing up into God and a divine life Away with those low and base thoughts of happiness the happiness of a soul is a high and excellent indeed a divine thing it is in some sense common to God and the soul God is happy in himself alone and the soul can only be happy in him What contentment what real happiness Christian can the rising of thy party in the world or the rising of thy name in the countrey bring thee if in the mean time thou thy self harbourest any carnal will self-interest that doth rise up in opposition to the pure and perfect will and nature of God How art thou happy in thy prayers if thou cast sin out at thy mouth and in the mean time a fountain of iniquity be springing up in thy heart What avails it towards a state of perfection to be of the most orthodox opinions the honestest society the fâ—irest profession the most popular and sanctimonious form or the most plansible performances either the soul being in the mean time alienated from the life of God and feeding upon some earthly trash or other which destroyes the native powers and vigour of it and keeps it under a perpetual languor even just so much as a silken stocken upon a gouty leg or a Princely Diadem upon an aking head avails towards a state of ease and foundness and â—uâ—rasie of body Let nothing limit year ambition but a state of god-like perfection let nothing set bounds to your loving and longing souls but a real fruition of God himself nay let not that bound them neither but the more you enjoy see and caste the more let your love be strengthened after the manner of fire which the more it is fed the more hungry and devouring it growes In a word let nothing satisfie you lower than the highest character that can be given of mortal maâ— to be men after Gods own heart to have God dwelling in you to be filled with his fulness to have this real and excellent Communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ To whom be all honour praise and glory for ever and ever FINIS