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
making haste to be rich Prov. 28. 22. and hastning after another God Psal 16. 4. which eager and ardent passions towards earthly objects you may see livelily described in the instances of Ahab Amnon and Haman in the holy story And is there any reason to be given but why that new nature and divine principle which God putteth into regenerate souls should carry them as hastily and forcibly to a present fruition of their proper object and happiness so far as at present it may be enjoyed as that corrupt and degenerate nature doth hurry on them in whom it ruleth towards the satisfaction of their beastly lusts Divines speak sometimes of making Heaven and eternal life present to our selves and say that this is the work of faith which is an high and excellent doctrine but I doubt not thoroughly understood by ordinary Christians To make Heaven present to ones self is not only to insist upon a state of future happiness in frequent meditations to think much of it neither is this that noble employment of saving faith But the life and power of faith is most eminently exerted in sucking in participations of life and grace from Christ and in a real bringing down of God and Heaven into the Soul The truth is Heaven is a state of perfect communion with God a state of love joy peace purity freedome and as far as any soul is in such a state upon earth so far he is above the earth and may be said to be in Heaven Therefore a right active soul that truly understands his proper and spiritual Heaven and happiness so far as he is thus act ve and sensible cannot be content to stay for all his happiness till the world to come cannot be content to be unhappy no not for an hour but still growing up in God and springing up into everlasting life John 4. 14. 2. It reprehends them that make a stir about the Kingdom of Christ in the world and mens being brought into the communion of the Church but advance not his Kingdom in their own souls nor long not to have their own souls advanced into that noble state of communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ There is doubtless a generation of such popular Christians who being strangers to the life and power and spirit of true Religion do endeavour to put off themselves to the world and commend themselves to the charity of their brethren by a pretended zeal for the Kingdom of Christ in the world and the glorious manifestation of it as they speak I know indeed that it is worthy the cares and prayers and utmost diligence of every serious Christian to spread and propagate the knowledge of the Gospel to pour out the oyntment of Christs name far and near A more pure and spiritual administration of all Gospel ordinances throughout the world is bighly desirable yea and I think an indifferent and careless disposition towards the worship of God argues much of an earthly and atheistical mind But I fear that Kingdom of Christ and those glorious manifestations and discoveries which are so much pretended to by many if they should be throughly examined would be at length resolved into nothing else but the advancement of some one party or interest above all the rest or the exchanging of an old form and dress of Religion for a new one and that this zeal would be found little better than the blazings of self-love a fire kindled not by a coal from the Altar but by a spark of their own But be it so that this disposition of theirs is sincere and spiritual should not this charity begin at home The most proper Kingdom of Christ is that whereby he ruleth in the hearts of men the most excellent Worship is when the soul it self becomes a temple for the living God to dwell in and to receive and reflect the manifestations of his glory when a fire of Divine love is kindled in it and therein it doth offer up not bulls and goots no nor 10 much prayers and meditations as indeed it self unto God which is a reasonable service as the Apostle speaks far more glorions than the Mosaical or Evangelical dispensation either if you consider it in the letter only Whatever men may pretend no man can be truly and rightly studious of the advancement of the Kingdom of God in the world that hath not first felt the mighty power and blessed effects of it in his own soul Communion with the Church is only so far to be valued as it lyes in order to a real and spiritual communion with God which communion with God if we do indeed sincerely wish to others we shall more abundantly labour to promote in our selves I cannot believe that he doth heartily seek the happiness of others who himself sits still and is content to be miscrable especially when their happiness and his is one and the same 3. It condemns them for no Christians whose fellowship is only with their fellow creatures We have seen that it is the character the distinguishâ—ng character of a godly man to have fellowship with God it must needs follow then that those degenerate souls that rise no higher than the world that converse only with self or any other creature are verily strangers to true Christianity whatever their confidence or presumption may be Christians tell not me what you profess of Christ what you believe of the Gospel what orthodox opinions you hold what an honest party you side with how many and specious duties you perform no nor what hopes or wishes you have of going to Heaven But tell me where is your principal communion what do you mainly mind follow converse with what pattern do you conform to what rule do you live by what object do you ultimately aim at The whole world of worldly men doth hasten after another God as the Psalmists Phrase is though not all after the same God they spend their souls indeed upon various objects and use different methods to obtain rest but yet all their happiness and contentment is ultimately resolved into creature-communion That dreadful sentence that the Apostle delivers universally concerning all men is to be limited to all wicked men only and of them it is undoubtedly true Phil. 2. 21. All seek their own and none the things of Jesus Christ And of All these it is that the Psalmists Many is to be understood Psal 4. 6. There be many that say who will shew us any good i. e. any creature-good as the words following do explain it All unregenerate souls are bound up in the creature some creature or other and therefore the noblest of them whatever brags they may make is low and ignoble their main converse is but with their fellow-creatures and indeed creatures much inferiour to themselves corn and wine sayes the Psalmist earthly things sayes the Apostle Phil. 3. 19. Who mind earthly things In a word though it be true what the Apostle sayes in one place
to bribe Gods justice or engage mens charity to purchase favour with God or man or his own clamarous conscience but he prays because he wants and loves and believes he wants the fuller presence of that God whom he loves he loves the presence which he wants he believes that he that loves him will not suffer him to want any good thing that he prays for And therefore he do's not bind up himself severely and limit himself penuriously to a morning and evening Sacrifice and solemnity as unto certain rent-seasons wherein to pay a homage of dry devotion but his loving and longing Soul disdaining to be confin'd within Canâ—nical hours is frequently soaring in some heavenly raptures or other and sallying forth in holy ejaculations He is not content with some weak assays towards Heaven in set and formal Prayer once or twice a day but labours also to be all the day long sucking in those Divine influences and streams of grace by the mouth of faith which he beg'd in the morning by the tongue of prayer which hath made me sometimes to think it a proper speech to say the faith of Prayer as well as the prayer of faith for believing and hanging upon Divine grace doth really drink in what Prayer opens its mouth for and is in effect a powerful kind of praying in silence By believing we pray as well as in praying we do believe A truly godly man hath not his hands tyed up meerly by the force of a National Law no nor yet by the authority of the fourth commandment to keep one in seven a day of rest As he is not content with meer resting upon the Sabboth knowing that neither working nor ceasing from work doth of itself commend a Soul to God but doth press after intimacy with God in the duties of his worship so neither can he be content with one Sabboth in a week nor think himself absolved from holy and heavenly meditations any day in the week but labours to make every day a Sabboth as to the keeping of his heart up unto God in a holy frame and to find every day to be a Sabboth as to the communications of God unto his Soul Though the necessities of his body will not allow him it may be though indeed God hath granted this to some men to keep every day as a Sabboth of Rest yet the necessities of his Soul do call upon him to make every day as far as may be a Sabboth of communion with the blessed God If you speak of Fasting he keeps not Fasts meerly by vertue of a civil no nor a divine institution but from a principle of godly sorrow afflicts his â—oul for sio and daily endeavours more and more to be emptied of himself which is the most excellent Fasting in the world If you speak of Thansgiving he do's not give thanks by laws and ordinances but having in himself a law of thanksulness and an ordinance of love engraven upon and deeply radicated in his Soul delights to live unto God and to make his heart and life a living descant upon the goodness and love of God which is the most divine way of thank offering in the world it is the hallâ—lujah which the Angels sing continually In a word wherever God hath a tongue to command true godliness will find an hand to perform whatever yoke Christ Jesus shall put upon the Soul religion will enable to bear it yea and to count it easie too the mouth of Christ hath pronounâ—'d it easie Mat. 11. 30. and the spirit of Christ makes it easie Let the commandment be what it will it will not le grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. The same spirit doth in some measure dwell in every Christian which without measure dwelt in Christ who counted it his meat and drink to do the will of his Father Joh. 4. 34. 2. And more especially the true Christian is free from any constâ—aint as to the inward acts which he performeth Holy love to God is one principal Act of the gracioâ—s soul whereby it is carryed out freely and with an ardent lust towards the object that is truly and infinitely lovely and satisfâ—ctory and to the enjoyment of iâ— I know indeed that this springs from self indigency and is commanded by the soveraignty of the supream good the object that the Soul eyes but it is properly free from any constraint Love is an affection that cannot be excorted as sear is nor sorâ—â—d by any external power nor indeed internal neither the revenues of the King of Persia or the treasuâ—es oâ— Aegypt cannot commit a rape upon â—â— Heb. 11. 26. neither indeed can the soul it self raise and lay this spirit at pleasure which made the Poet complain of himself as if he were not sole Emperour at home Non amo te Sabidi nec possum dicere quare c. Though the outward bodily Acts of Religion are ordinarily forced yet this pure chast virgin-affection cannot be ravished it seems to be a kind of a peculiar in the soul though under the jurisdiction of the understanding By this property of it it is elegantly described by the spirit of God Cant. 8. 7. if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned It cannot be bought with money or money-worth cannot be purchased with gifts or arts and if any should offer to bribe it it would give him a sharp and scornful check in the language of Peter to Simon Thy money perish with thee love is no hireling no base born mercenary affection but noble free and generous Neither is it low-spirited and slavish as Fear is therefore when it comes to full age it will not suffer this Son of the Bond woman to divide the inheritance the dominions of the Soul with it when it comes to be perfect it casteth out fear sayes the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 18. Neither indeed is it directly under the authority of any law whether humane or Divine it is not begotten by the influence of a divine law as a law but as holy just and good as we shall see more anon quis legem dat amantibus ipse Est sibi lex amor the Law of Love or if you will in the Apostles phrase the spirit of love and of power in opposition to the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. doth more influence the godly man in his pursuit of God than any law without him this is as a wing to the Soul whereas outward commandments are but as guides in his way or at most but as spurs in his sides The same I may say of holy delight in God which is indeed the flower of love or love grown up to its full age and stature which hath no torment in it and consequently no force upon it Like unto which are holy confidence Faith and Hope ingenuous and natural Acts of the Religious Soul whereby it hastens into the Divine embraces as the Eagle hastneth to the prey swiftly and speedily
drink all this while he lives not to himself but serves an higher interest than that of the flesh and a higher good than himself or any created Being A true Christian actively doth not only appear in those things which call duties of Worship or religious performances but in the whole frame of the heart contriving and the conversation expressing and unfolding the glory of God A holy serious heavenly humble sober righteous and self-denying course of life do's most excellently express the divine glory by imitating the nature of God and most effectually call all men to the imitation of it according as our Saviour hath nakedly stated the case Joh. 15. 8. Hereby is my Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit By which fruits are not to be understood only preaching praying conference which are indeed high and excellent duties but also righteousness temperance self-denial which things are pure reflections of the divine image and a real glorifying of God's Name and perfections A good Christian cannot be content to be happy alone to be still drawing down Heaven into his own soul but he endeavours also both by prayer counsel and holy example to draw up the souls of other men Heaven-ward This God witnesseth of Abraham Gen. 18. 19. I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord And this Moses doth excelently witness of himself in that holy â—apture of his Numb 11. 29. Would God that all the Lord's people were Prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them By such examples as these a good man desires to live yea by higher presidents than either Abraham or Moses even by the example of the Father and of the Son He admires and strives to imitate that character which is given of God himself Psal 119. 68. Thou art good and dost good and that which is given of Christ Jesus the Lord of life Act. 10. 38. Who went about doing good who also witnessed elsewhere concerning himself that he came not into the world to do his own will nor seek his own glory but the will and glory of him that sent him And again Luk. 2. 49. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business Oh how happy would the godly soul count it self if it could but live and converse in the world at the same rate and with the same devout fervent exalted spirit as Christ Jesus did whose meat and drink it was still to be doing the will and advancing the glory of his Father But alas the poor soul finds it self ensnared by passions and selfish affections from within clogg'd with an unweildy body and distracted with secular affairs from without that it cannot rise so nimbly run so swiftly nor serve the infinite and glorious God so chearfully nor liberally as it would and therefore the poor prisoner sigbs within it self and wishes that it might escape But finding a certain time determined upon it in the body which it must be content to live out it looks up and is ready to envy the Angels of God because it cannot live as they do who are alwaies upon God's errand and almost thinks much that it self is not a Ministring Spirit serving the pure and perfect will of the supreme good without grudging or ceasing The godly soul under these powerful apprehensions of the nature of God the example of Christ and the honourable office of the holy Angels is ready to grudge the body that attendance that it calls for and those offices which it is forc't to perform to it as judging them impertinent to its main happiness and most excellent employment it is ready to envy that more chearful and willing service which it finds from the heavy and drossy body with which it is united and to cry out Oh that I were that to my God which my body my eyes hands and feet are to me For I say to one of these go and he goeth and to another do this and he doeth it In a word a good man being acquainted feelingly with the highest good eying diligently the great end of his coming into the world and his short time of being in iâ— serves the Eternal and Blessed God lives upon eternal designs and by consecrating all his actions unto God gives a kind of an immortality to them which are in themselves sâ—tting and transient He counts it a reproâ—ch to any man much more to a godly man to do any thing insignificantly much more to live iâ—percinently and he reckons all things that have not a tendency to the highest good and a subserviency to the great and last end to be impertinencies yea and absurdities in an immortal soul which should continually be springing up into everlasting life 3. The active and vigorous nature of true Religion manifests it self in those powerful and incessant longings after God with which it fills that soul in which it is planted This I superadd to the two former because the godly man though he be formed into some likeness to God yet desires to be more like him and though he be somewhat serviceable to him yet desires to be more instrumental to his will though he be good yet desires to be better and though he do good yet he desires to do better or at least more And indeed I reckon that these sincere and holy hungrings after God which I am going to speak of are one of the best signs that I know in the world of spiritual health and the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a true Christian For in this low and animal state we are better acquainted with lovings and languishings than with fruition or satisfaction and the best enjoyment that we have of God in this world is but scant and short indeed but a kind of a longing to enjoy him Love is certainly a high and noble affection but alas our love whilst we are here in the body is in its non-age in its weak and sickly state rather a longing than a loving much unlike to what it will be when it shall be grown up unto its perfect stature in glory But this sickly kind of languishing affection is a certain symptom of a healthful constitution or as the Apostle calls it of the spirit of a sound mind Godly souls are thirsty souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of divine grace even as the parched Desart gapeth for the dew of Heaven the early and the later rain One would wonder what kind of Magick there was in Elijahs mantle that the very casting of it upon Elisha should make him leave Oxen and Plough yea Father and Mother and all to run after a stranger Elijah himself seems to wonder at it 1 King 19. 20. What have I done to thee oh but what a mighty charâ— is there in divine love which when it is once shew abroad in the soul makes the soul to spread itself in it and to it as the heliotrope attending the motions
whom she had so long straggled by sin and wickedness For the God of hope filleth the godly soul with all peace and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. Christ doth on purpose speak words to the hearts of his Disciples that their joy may be full Joh. 15. 11. But whether the most benign and gracious Father of spirits doth immediately from himself inspire the holy soul with divine joys and pleasures kindled as I may say with nothing but his own breath or whether he bring them to his holy Mountain and into his house of prayer and by that or any other the like means make them joyful and of glad heart as in the day of a solemn festival as he hath promised to do Isa 56. 7. and Isa 25. 6. However it be I say sure it is that he frequently puts a gladness into their hearts beyond that of the Harvest or the Vintage Psal 4. 7. and makes them to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. Having now unfolded the meaning of the gracious soul 's nor thirsting any more I should pass to the last thing contained in the Text but finding my self opprest in my spirit by the consideration of this necessary consequent of true Religion when I compare the temper of Christians with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must crave leave to stay a little and breathe And what shall I breath but a sad and bitter complaint over that low earthly selfish greedy spirit which actuateth the world at this day yea and the generality of Professors of that sacred Religion which we call Christianity Alas what a company of thieves and murderers I mean base and sensual loves and lusts lodge in those very souls who would be taken for Temples consecrated to the name and honour and inhabitation of the eternal God the spirit of Truth and Holiness Oh what pitty is it that the precious souls of men yea and of Christians the best of men that are all capable of so glorious liberty so high and honourable a happiness should be bound down under such vile and sordid lusts feeding upon dust and gravel to whom the hidden Mannah is freely offered and God himself is ready to become a banquet And oh what a shame is it for those who profess themselves children of God Disciples of the most holy Jesus and Heirs of his pure and undefiled Kingdom of Heaven for these I say willingly and greedily to roll themselves in filthy and bruitish sensualities to set up that on high in their souls which was made to be under their bodies and so to love and live as if they studied to have no affinity at all but would be as unlike as they could to that God and Redeemer and unfit for that inheritance How often shall it be protested to the Christian world by men of the greatest devotion and seriousness that it is utterly mad and perfectly vain to dream of entring into the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter except the Kingdom of Heaven enter into our souls during their union with these bodies How long shall the Son of God who came into the world on purpose to be the most glorious example of true and divine purity exact and perfect self-denial and mortification how long shall he lye by in his word as an antiquated pattern only cut out for the Apostolical ages of the world and only suited to some few morose and melancholick men Is it not a monstrous spectacle and to be hist out of the world with the greatest indignation a covetous voluptuous ambitious sensual Saint With what face can we pretend to true Religion or a feeling acquaintance with God and the things of his personall service and Kingdome whilest the continual bleatings and lowings of our souls after created good do bewray us so manifestly and proclaim before all the world that the beast the brutish life is still powerful in us If ye seek me saith Christ to his followers as well as he did once to his persecutors then let these go let go the hold of these earthly objects let vanish these worldly joys and toys with-hold your throat from thirst and your feet from being unshod and come follow me only and ye shall have treasure in Heaven for he that will not deny all for me is not worthy of me But O curvae in terras animae c. Ah sad and dreadful fall that hath so miserably crampt this royal off-spring and made the Kings Son to be a same Mephibosheth Ah dolesul Apostasie How are the Sons of the morning become Brats of darkness and the heirs of Heaven vassals and drudges to earth How is the Kings Daughter unequally yoaked with a churlish Nabal that continually checketh her with more divine and generous motions How unhappily art thou matcht O my soul And yet alas I see it is too properly a marriage for thou hast clean forgotten thine own people and thy Fathers house Take up oh take up a lamentation thou Virgin Daughter of the God of Zion Sometimes indeed a Virgin but now alas no longer a Virgin but miserably married to an unworthy mate that can never be able to match thy faculties nor maintain thee according to the grandeur of thy birth or the necessary pomp of thy expences and way of living nay thou art become not only a miserable wife but in so being thou art also a wicked adulteress prostituting thy self to the very vilest of thy lawful Husbands servants if thou be not incestuous it is no thank to thee there being nothing in this world so near of kin to thee as to make way for incest Return return O Shulamite return return put away thine adulteries from between thy breasts and so shall the King yet again greatly desire thy beauty for so he hath promised Jer. 3. 21. that when there shall be a voice heard upon the high places weeping and supplications of the children of Israel because they have perverted their way and forgotten the Lord their God and the backsliding children shall return that then he will heal their backslidings CHAP. VIII The term or end of Religion eternal life considered in a double notion First as it signifies the essential happiness of the soul The second as it takes in many glorious appendices The former more fully described the latter more briefly The noble and genuine breathings of the godly soul after and springing up into the former in what sense she may be said to desire the latter The argument drawn from the example of Christ Moses and Paul moderated A general answer given to the Quaery It ends in a serious exhortation made to Christians to live and love more spiritually more suitably to the nature of souls redeemed souls resulting from the whole discourse I Am now come to the last thing whereby this most noble principle is described viz. the Term or End of it and that is said here in the Text to be Everlasting Life This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or
pleasures profits or preferments into it yet it is a well of living water and will work its passage out The hungrings of the godly soul are not cannot be satisfied till it come to feed upon the hidden Manna nor its thirstings quenched till it come to be swallowed up in the unbounded Ocean of life and love But I see I cannot divide springing up from Eternal Life nor pursue the term of Religion but I must also take in the motion of the Religious soul whereby he pursues it which I have already handled in my discourse therefore I will quit this head and take a short view of the second The secondary and more improper notion of Eternal Life I told you was that which takes in the circumstances or appendices of it And here we must needs allow that the holy Scriptures do openly avonch some of these circumstances as those especially of the first rank that I named of some of which it seems to make great account and possibly the Scripture may some where or other imply all the rest even those of the inferiour rank Again we will allow that many of those phrases which the Scripture uses to describe the blessed state of the other world do principally respect these appendices of the souls essential happiness Such perhaps are the Crown of Righteousness mentioned by the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 8. The price of the high Calling mentioned by the same Apostle Phil. 3. 14. The House which is from Heaven spoken of 2 Cor. 6. 2. A Kingdom an incorruptible Inheritance a place prepared Mansions a reward praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 7. And that glory honour and peace spoken of by the Apostle Paul Rom. 2. 10. These are all Scripture descriptions of the other state and I suppose we may grant them to have a peculiar reference to this secondary and preter-essential happiness of the soul Though I know not any necessity there is to be so liberal in our concessions for it may be fairly said concerning all or most of them that the design of these phrases is not so much to establish this less proper notion or to point ouâ— to the circumstances of the glorified state as to insinuate how much more ample and glorious that state shall be than this in which we now are as a prize is looked upon as somewhat more excellent than what is done or expended to acquire it it must needs be so esteemed by runners and wrestlers a Kingdom is a more glorious state than that of subjection and an Inheritance is incomparably more ample than the pension that is allowed the heir in his minority But these things being conceded it doth not appear how far or under what notion the religious soul as such doth spring up into these additional glories and thirst after them I know there are many that speak very highly of these appendices and allow the godly soul a very high and irrespective valuation of them And this they do principally infer from the examples of Christ himself as also of Moses and Paul Give me leave therefore to suggest something not to enervate but to moderate the Argument drawn from these persons and after that I shall briefly lay down what I conceive to be most Scriptural and rational in this matter First As for the example of Christ it seems to make not much for them in this matter For however the Text is very plain that for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross and this joy seems plainly to be his session at the right hand of God Heb. 12. 2. Yet if by this joy we understand a more full and glorious possession of God and a more excellent exaltation of his humane nature to a more free fruition of the divine then it cannot be applied to any thing but the springing up of the gracious soul into its essential happiness which I have already contended for as being the proper genius of such a soul or if by this Joy and Throne we understand the power that Christ foresaw he should be vested with of leading captivity captive trampling under feet the powers of hell and darkness and procuring gifts for men which seems to me to be most likely then it belongs not at all to men neither can this example be drawn into imitation As for the instance of Moses who is said to have had respect to the recompence of the reward Heb. 11. 26. It is not yet granted that that recompence of reward relates principally to these appendants of the souls essential happiness neither can it I suppose be evinced But though I should also allow that which I encline to do yet all that can be inferred from it is but a respect that Moses had as our Translation well renders it or some account which he in his sufferings made of this recompence which was a very warrantable contemplation The Apostle Paul indeed doth openly profess that he looked for and desired the coming of Christ from Heaven upon the account of that glorious body which he would then cloath him with Phil. 3. 20 21. And so he might sure and yet not desire it principally and primarily but secondarily and with reference And this leads me to the general answer that I was preparing to give which is this Some of these circumstances which I named especially that of the glorified body may be reduced to the essential happiness of the soul or included in it so as that the soul could not otherwise be perfectly happy It is the vote of all Divines I think that a Christian is not compleatly happy till he consist of a soul and body both glorified And indeed considering the dear affection and essential aptitude that God hath planted in the humane soul for a body we cannot well conceive how she should be perfectly happy without one And this earthly body is alas an unequal yoak fellow in which she is half stifled and rather buried than conveniently lodg'd so that it seems necessary even to her essential happiness that she should have some more heavenly and glorious body wherein she may commodiously and pleasantly exert her innate powers and whereby she may express her self in a spiritual and noble manner suitable to her own natural dignity and vigour and to her infinitely-amiable and most beloved object Concerning the rest of the circumstances which cannot be thus reduced I conceive that such of them as are necessary to the essential happiness of the soul by way of subserviency may be eyed and desired and thirsted after secondarily and with reference as I said before that is under this notion only as they are subservient to that essential blessedness I confess I do not understand under what other notion a religious soul can lift up it self unto them I mean not so far forth as it is holy and religious and acts suitably to that divine principle which the Father of Spirits or rather the Father of our Lord