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
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
CHAP. II. True Religion described as to the nature of it by Water a Metaphor usual in the Scriptures First by reason of the cleansing vertue of it The defiling nature of Sin and the beauty of Holiness manifested Secondly by reason of the quenching vertue of it This briefly touch'd upon and the more full handling of it referred to its proper place The nature of Religion described by a Well of Water That it is a Principle in the Souls of Men proved by much Scripture An Examination of Religion by this test by which Examination are excluded all things that are meerly external external Reformations and Performances instanced in A godly man hath neither the whole of his business nor his motives lying without him In the same Examination many things internal found not to be Religion It is no sudden passion of the Mind no not though the same amount to an extasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Come now to speak of the Nature of True Religion which is here described by our blessed Lord by a well of Water First by Water secondly by a Well of both these but more briefly of the former 1. Pure Religion or Gospel-Grace is described by Water This is a comparison very familiar in holy Scriptures both of the Old Testament and the New By this similitude Gospel-Grace was typiâ—ied in the Ceremonial Law wherein both Persons and Things ceremonially unclean were commanded to be wash'd in Water as is abundantly to be seen in that administration Under this notion the same Grace is pray'd for by the Psalmist when he had defiled himself in the Bed of a Stranger Psal 51. 7. Wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow He had drunk Water out of a strange Cistern as his Son Solomon describâ—â— that unclean act Pro. 5. 15. and now he calls out for Water from the Fountain of Grace to undefile him He now crys out for Water from the Fountain of Grace the blessed Messiah that sprung up into the world at Bethlehem and that with more earnestness than formerly we read that he wish'd for the Water of the Well of Bethlehem which is by the gate 2 Sam. 23. In the same phrase the same grace is promised by the Ministry of the Prophets who prophesied of the grace that should come unto us Thus we read of the fair and flourishing state of the Church Isa 58. 11. Thou shalt be like a watred Garden and like a spring of Water whose Waters fail not and of the fruitful state of the Gospel-Proselytes Joel 3. 18. All the Rivers of Judah shall flow with Waters and a fountain shall come forth of the House of the Lord and shall water the Valley of Shittim Which promises that they are understood of the grace of Sanctification the Prophet Ezekiel sheweth plainly Ezek. 36 25. I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you for ordinary elementary Water cannot cleanse men from Idols The Prophet Isaiah also puts it out of doubt whose Prophecy together with the interpretation of it we find both in one verse Isa 44. 3. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thine Off-spring By the same Ceremony the Gospel-Dispensation shadows out the same Mystery in the Sacrament of Baptism and by the same phrase our Saviour offers and promises the same Grace Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink and his Apostles after him who in allusion to Water call this Grace the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. To which I might adde 1 Pet. 3. 21. and many other Texts if it needed Now as the grace of God is compared to Fire because of its refining nature and consuming the dross and refuse of Lust in the Soul and to other things for other reasons so is it compared to Water especially for those two properties viz. Cleansing and quenching For observe this by the way that it is a very injurious thing to the holy Ghost to press the Metaphors which he useth in Scripture further than they do naturally freely serve Neither are we to stick in the letter of the Metaphor but to attend unto the scope of it If we tenaciously adhere to the phrase wanton wits will be ready to quarrel with absurdities and so unawares run into strange blasphemies They will cry out presently How can Fire wash when they read that of the Prophet Isa 4. 4. The Lord will wash away the filth of the Daughter of Sion by the Spirit of Burning But who art thou O man that wilt teach him to speak who formed the Tongue The Spirit of God intends the vertue and property of things when he names them and that we must mainly attend to First therefore by the phrase Water is the Cleansing nature of Religion commended to us It is the undefiling of the Soul which Sin and Wickedness hath polluted Sin is oft described in Scripture by filthiness loathsomness abomination uncleanness a spot a blemish a stain a pollution which indeed is a most proper description of it The spots of Leprosie and the scurff of the fowlest scurvy are beauty spots in comparison of it Job upon the Dunghil furnished cap-a-pe with scabs and boils was not half so loathsome as goodly Absalom in whose Body there was no blemish from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head but his Soul was stained with the sanguine spots of malice and revenge and festred with the loathsome Carbuncle and Tumour of Ambition Lazarus lying at the gates full of raw and running sores was a far more lovely object in the pure Eyes of God than dame Jezabel looking out at the window adorned with spots and paints If the best of a godly man that he hath of his own even his Righteousness be as a filthy rag Isa 64. 6. Whence shall we borrow a phrase soul enough to describe the worst of a wicked man even his wickedness I need say no more of it I can say no worse of it than to tell you it is something contrary to God who is the eternal Father of Light who is Beauty and Brightness and Glory it self or to give it you in the Apostle's phrase Rom. 3. 23. a falling short of the glory of God Which hath made me many times to wonder and almost ready to cry out with the Prophet Be astonished O ye Heavens at this when I have seen poor ignorant wicked and prophane Wretches passing by a person or a family visited with some loathsome Disease in a mixture of fear and disdain stopping their Noses and hastning away when their own Souls have been more vile than the dung upon the Earth spotted with Ignorance and Atheism swollen with the risings of Pride and Self-will and contempt of God and his holy Image This might well be a matter of wonder to any
indeed then neither nor can it be until he come to the measure of the stature of his Lord and be grown up into him in all things who is the head even Christ Ephes 4. 15. He delights and glories in God beholding his spices growing in his soul but that does not satisfie him except he may see them flowing out also Cant. 4. 16. He is neither barren nor unfruitful as the Apostle Peter speaks but that is not enough he desires to be fat and fruitful also as a watered Garden as the Prophet phraseth it even as the Garden of God The spirit lusteth against the flesh and struggles with it in the same womb of the soul as Jacob with Esau until he had cast him out The seed of God warreth continually against the seed of the Serpent raging and restless like Jehu shooting and stabbing and strangling all he meets with till none at all remain of the family of that Ahab who had formerly been his Master Oh how do's the godly and devout soul long to have Christ's victory carried on in it self to have Christ going on in him conquering and to conquer till at length the very last enemy be subdued that the Prince of Peace may ride triumphantly thorow all the Coasts and Regions of his heart and life and not so much as a Dog move his tongue against him â— This holy principle which is of God in the soul is actually industrious too it doth not fold the arms together hide its hand in its bosome faintly wishing to obtain a final conquest over its enemies but advances it self with a noble stoutness ness against lusts and passions even as the Sun glorieth against the darkness of the night until it have chased it all away The godly soul puts it self under the banner of Christ fights under the conduct of the Angel of God's presence and so marches up undauntedly against the children of Anak those earthly loves lusts sensual affections which are indeed taller and stronger than all other enemies that do encounter it in this wilderness state and the gracious God is not wanting to such endeavours he remembring his promise helpeth his servants even that promise Isa 49. 31. That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength A true Israelitish soul impregnated with this noble and heroick principle is not like those slothful Israelites that were content with what they had got of the holy Land and either could not or cared not to enlarge their border Judg. 1. But he makes war upon the remainder of the Canaanites and is never at rest till be have with Sarah cast out the bond woman and her Son too You may see an emblem of such a soul in Moses holding up his hands all the day long till Amalek was quite discomfited Exo. 17. As oft as the floods of temptation springing from the Devil the world or the flesh do offer to come in upon him he opposeth them in the strength of Christ or if you will in the Prophets phrase Isa 59. 19. The Spirit of the Lord lifteth up a standard against them so that he is not carried down by them or at least not overwhelmed with them In the beginning of my discourse upon this head I hinted to you the reason why the godly soul continually studies conformity of God even because he is the perfect and absolute good and the soul reckons that its happiness consists only in being like unto him in partaking of a divine nature But I might also here take occasion speak of three things which I will but briefly name and so past on First A godly man reckons with himself that conformity to the image and nature of God is the most proper conversing with God in the world The great and indeed only imployment of an immortal soul is to converse with its Creator for this end it was made and made so capacious as we see it Now to partake of a divine nature to be indutd with a God-like disposition is most properly to converse with God this is a real powerful practical and feeling converse with him infinitely to be preferred before all notions professions performances or speculations Secondly A godly man reckons that the image of God is the glory and ornament of the soul it is the lustre and brightness and beauty of the soul as the soul is of the body Holiness is not only the duty but the highest honour and dignity that any created nature is capable of And therefore the godly soul who hath his senses exercised to discern good and evil pursues after it as after his sull and proper perfection Thirdly A godly man reckons that conformity to the divine image participation of the divine nature is the sureft and most comfortable evidence of divine love which is a matter of so great enquity in the world By growing up daily in Christ Jesus we are infallibly assured of our implantation into him The Spirit of God descending upon the soul in the impressions of meekness kindness uprightness which is a Dove-like disposition is a better and more desirable evidence of our Sonship and God's favour towards us than if we had the Spirit descending upon our heads in a Dove-like shape as it did upon our blessed Saviour These things may pass for a kind of reasons why the religious Christian above all things labours to become God-like to be formed more and more into a resemblance of the supreme good and to drink in divine perfections into the very inmost of his soul 2. The active and industrious nature of true Godliness or Religion manifests its self in a good man's continual care and study to do good to serve the interest of the holy and blessed God in the world A good man being mastered with the sense of the infinite goodness of God and the great end of his life cannot think it worth while to spend himself for any inferiour good or bestow his time and strength for any lower end than that it and therefore as it is the main happiness of his life to enjoy God so he makes it the main business of his life to serve him to be doing for him to lay out himself for him and to display and propagate his glory in the world And as he is ravished with the apprehensions of the supreme goodness which doth infinitely deserve and may justly challenge all that he can do or expend for him so he doth indeed really partake of the active and communicative nature of that blessed Being and himself becomes active and communicative too A godly soul sluggish and unactive is as if one should say a godly soul altogether unlike to God a pure contradiction I cannot dwell upon any of those particular desigus of serving the interest of God's glory which a good man is still driving on in the world Only this in general whether be pray or preach or read or celebrate Sabbaths or administer private reproof or instruction or indeed plow or sow eat or
acts and carcase-services and to think it is nothing else but a running the round of duties and ordinances and a keeping up a constant set and course of actions such an external legal righteousness the Apostle Paul after his conversion could not take up with but counted it all loss and dung in comparison of that Godlike righteousness which was now brought into his soul that inward and spiritual conformity to Christ which was now wrought in him Phil. 3. 9 10. I know indeed that men will be loth to confess that they place their Religion in any thing without them but I pray consider seriously wherein you excell other men save only in praying or hearing now and then or some other outward acts and judge your selves by your nature and not by your actions 2. The Active spirit of Religion where it is in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in a meer pardon of sin and they are but slothfull souls that could be so satisfied Blessed is the man indeed whose inquities are pardoned Psal 32 1 2. but if we could suppose a soul to be acquitted of the guilt of all sin and yet to lie bound under the dominion of lusts and passions and to live without God in the world he were yet far from true blessedness A reall hell and misery will arise out of the very bowels of sin and wickedness though there should be no reserve of fire and brimstone in the world to come It is utterly impossible that a Soul should be happy out of God though it had the greatest security imaginable that it should never suffer any thing from him The highest care and ambition indeed of a slavish and mercenary spirit is to be secured from the wrath and vengeance of God but the breathings of the ingenuous and holy soul are after a divine life and Godlike perfections This right gracious tempe you may see in David Psal 51. 9 10 11 12. which is also the temper of every truly Religious soul 3. The Active spirit of Religion where it is in the soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in meer innâ—cency freedom from sin and they are slothful souls that could count it happiness enough to be harmless I doubt men are much mistaken about holiness it is more than meer innocency or freedom from the guilt or power of sin it is not a negative thing there is something active noble divine powerfull in true Religion A soul that rightly understands its own penury and self-insufficiency and the emptiness and meanness of all creature-good cannot possibly take up its rest or place its happiness in any thing but in a real participation of God himself and therefore is continually making out towards that God from whom it came and is labouring to unite itself more and more unto him Let a low-spirited fleshly minded Pharisee take up with a negative holiness and happiness as he doth Luke 18. 11. God I thank thee that I am not so and so a noble and high-spirited Christian cannot take up his rest in any negation or freedom from sin Every godly soul is not so learned indeed as to be able to describe the nature and proper perfection of a soul and to tell you how the happiness of a soul consists not in quiete but in actu vigore not in cessation and rest as the happiness of a stone doth but in life and power and vigour as the happiness of God himself doth But yet the spirit of true Religion is so excellent and powerfull in every godly soul that it is still carrying it to the fuller enjoyment of an higher good and the soul doth find and feel within itself though it cannot discourse Philosophically of these things that though it were free from all disturbance of sin and affliction in the world yet still it wants some supream and possible good to make it compleatly happy and so bends all its power thiâ— herward This is the description which you will everywhere find made in Scripture of the true spirit of holiness which hath alwayes something positive and divine in it as Isâ— 1. 16 17. cease to do evil learn to do well and Ephes 4. 22 24. Put off the old man put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And accordingly a truly godly soul to use the Apostles words though he know nothing by himself yet doth not thereby count himself happy 4. The Active spirit of true Religion whâ—re it is in the Soul will not suffer men to take up their rest in some measures of grace received and so far as the soul doth so it is sluggish and less Active than it ought to be This indeed oft times comes to pass when the soul is under some distemper of proud selfishness earthly-mindedness or the like or is less apprehensive of its object and happiness as it seems to have been the case of the spouse Cant. 5. 3. Some such fainting fits languishings suâ—ferings in sensibleness must be allowed to be in the Godly soul during its imprisoned and imperfect state But we must not judge our selves by any present distempers or infirmities The nature of Religion when it acts the soul rightly and powerfully is to carry it after a more lively resemblance of God which is the most proper and excellent enjoyment of him A mind rightly and actually sound is most sick of love and the nature of love is not to know when it is near enough to its object but still to long after the most perfect conjunction with it This well of water if it be not violently obstructed for a time is ever springing up till it be swallowed up in the Ocean of divine love and grace The soul that is rightly acquainted with itself and its God sees something still wanting in itself and to be enjoyed in him which makes it that it cannot be at rest but is still springing up into him till it come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of its Lord. In this holy loving longing striving active temper we find the great Apostle Phil. 3. 12 13 14. And by how much the more of divine grace any soul hath drunk in the more thirsty is it after much more 5. The Active spirit of true Religion where it is powerfully seated in the minds of men will not suffer them to settle into a love of this animal life nor indeed suffer them to be content to live for ever in such a kind of body as this and that soul is in a degree lazy and slothful that doth not desire to depart and be with his Lord. The godly soul eying God as his perfect and full happiness and finding that his being in the body doth separate him from God keep him in a poor and imperfect state and hinders his blissfull communion with the highest good groans within itself that mortality were swallowed up of life with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 4. I
improved and mightily inflamed thereby I suppose I need not stay upon so popular a Theme and so acknowledged a subject therefore I will but present you with the instances of holy David in the Old Testament and gracious Paul in the New and so quit this head I need not I suppose magnifie the holy and divine frame of David's spirit by any balbutient Rhetorick of mine God himself hath given the amplest testimony and fairest character of him that I remember to have been at any time given of any man when he owns him for a man after his own heart And what a longing thirsting soul this was I need do no more to demonstrate than to turn you to some passages and professions of his own in his devout Psalms such as Psal 42. 12. 63. 1. 143. 6. Where he borrows the strongest inclmations that are to be found in the whole Creation to represent the devout ardots of his own soul As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty Land Yea he seems like one that would swoon away for very longing Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit I lift my soul unto thee I flee unto thee c. The very same temper you will find in boly Paul that chosen vessel of God if you peruse his Epistles in all which you will meet with devout and strong breathings of the same kind particularly Phil. 3. 11 12 13 14. Where he seems to be so thirsty after a state of heavenly perfection that he longs after if I mistake not the meaning of the 11. verse something that yet he knows he cannot arrive at whilst he is in this world even the resurrection of the dead or such a perfect state of purity and holiness as belongs to the children of the resurrection 5. The godly soul thirsteth no more after happiness in any creature nor rests in any worldly thing but in God alone This particular consists also of two branches the former and negative part whereof seems to me to contain in it the scope and meaning of out Saviour in these words which I am now interpreting We have already seen that every unsanctified soul is restless and creaving wavering unsatisfied inconstant to it self and its choice By reason of its natural activity it is alwaies spending it self in restless and giddy motions as we observed under the first head of this discourse but by reason of its ignorance and unacquaintedness with the one Supreme and All-sufficient good and the multiplicity of lower ends and objects is miserably distracted and doth necessarily grapple with inevitable disturbances in a continual unsteadiness putting forth it self now towards one thing anon to another courting every thing but matching with nothing like a fickle Lover that is alwaies enamoured with the last feature he saw or a greedy Merchant that being equally in love with the pleasure of being at home and the profit of being abroad can stay long no where with any content but has alwaies most mind of the place where he is not as he confesses of himself in the Poet Romae Tybur amo ventosus Tybure Romam The description that our Lord gives of the unclean spirit that is gone out of a man Matth. 12. 43. seems very aptly to agree to that unclean spirit that is in man that being departed from God its proper rest and habitation walketh thorough dry and desart places I mean empty and unsatisfying creature-enjoyments seeking rest but finding none It was an accidental affliction of believers but it is the natural and necessary affliction of every unbelieveing and wicked soul to wander up and down the world distitute afflicted tormented Sinful self is so multiform and that one root the animal life has such a world of branches that it is impossible to administer due nourishment to them all and yet they are all importunate and greedy suckers too so that he must needs have a difficult task and a painful Province that is constrained to attend upon so many so different and yet all of them so 〈◊〉 and imperious Masters But I shall lose ground by thus going backward to what I spoke to under the second head except I can make this advantage of it enforce that which I was going to speak of with the greater strengeh and clearer evidence The case standing thus with the unregenerate soul as we have seen in this short review I now say that divine grace allays the multifarious thirst of the soul after other waters filthy puddles of which it could never yet drink deep or if it drunk never so deep could not be quenched it determines the soul to one object which before was rent in pieces amongst many It do's not destroy any of the natural powers nor dry up the innate vâ—gour of the soul as I made evident under the last head but it takes it off from the chase of all inferiour ends and inadequate objects setting it upon a vehement pursuit of and causing it to spend all those its powers not less vlgorously but far more rationally and satisfactorily upon that objectum par amori the infinitely-amiable and self-sufficient God When the soul hath once met with this glorious object is once mastered with this supâ—reme good is by divint grace ampliated and enlarged it cannot with any ease stretch it self upon the creature any more that is too scant and insufficient for it Certainly the soul that understands its own original nature and capacity and once comes to view it self in God will see it self too large to be bounded by the narrow confines oâ— self or any creature and too free to be bound down and chained to any earthly object whatever The world indeed may yea and will labour to take off the soul What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved that thou art so fond of him Are not Abara and Pharpar Rivers of Damasens better than all the waters of Israel Be content here is hay and provender stay with me this nâ—ght let us dally and make merry together a little longer But these Syrenian songs are sung to a deaf ear they cannot inchant the wise and devout soul that hath her senses rightly awakened and exercised to discern between good and evil Oh no I am sick of love and sick of every thing that keeps me from my Beloved and therefore however you may go about to defile me through fraud or force through surprize or violence yet I will not prostitute my self unto you The gracious foul hath now discovered the most beautiful perfect and lovely object even him whose name is Love it self which glorious vision hath so blasted and
and 2. 15. As also Jer. 31. 15. with many more But however it goes with that Text and whether or no the souls of men be so near of kindred to the Angels as to their comprechensions yet that they are capable of a most noble and excellent happiness and much allyed to God himself doth appear from such texts of Scripture as do require them to be holy as God is holy to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect Neithen need it seem to any incredible that the rational soul should be so capacions for we are no more to judge of the Angelical temper and noble actings of the separated soul by what we see it to be and do in this body of flesh than one can judge of the prowess and puissance of a renowned Warriour in the head of an Army by what we discern in him when he lyes bound in Chains or of the power and splend or of the Sun by what we discern of it when it is ecclipsed or miserably beclouded or if you will no more than we can judge of a man by the imperfections balbutioncies and titubancies of his childhood For so the Apostle Paul seems to state the case 1 Cor. 13. 10 11. Plainly iâ—plying that the present and future condition of the soul is comparable to the minority and adult state of a man as if he had said the soul in its future and separate state will act as much nobler than what it doth now as the soul of the wisest and discrcerest man in the world acteth more nobly than what it did when he was a child Yea and what is still more to our present purpose he seems clearly to intimate in the twelfth verse that this improvement shall happen not so much by the more evident propounding of the object as by the more ample illumination and corrobotation of the faculties In the next place it will be easily inferred that all created good is too scant and insufficient for this capacious spirit of man too short a bed to streâ—câ— it self upon nâ—y it cannot contract it self so as to be accommodated to any worldly good without pain and anguish From both which it will be naturally and necessarily concluded that God alone is that adequate object which can match the soul of man and satisfie it as being infinitely superiour and transcendens to it The enjoyment of God is that ultimate end and perfect good that is only able to fix the spirit of man which otherwise not meeting with its match would be tossed to and sâ—o and labour under perpetual 〈◊〉 and restless fluctuations God is that A mighty goodness and sweetness who alone is able to draw us all the poetites of the soul unto himself satisfie all its cravings charm ali its restiess motions and cause all its aculties in the purest and most complacâ—ntial manner to conspire together how to give up themselves wholly and entirely to himself Secondly From this conjunction with omnipotent goodness ariseth pure peace yea joy and triumph to the religious soul For the clearer understanding of this I should premise what some have wisely observed that there is a natural congruity between God and the soul she being a spiritual substance and he being a spiritual good only suitable unto her This seems to be evident by experience for we see how difficult I had almost said impossible it is utterly to eradicate and extinguish all sense of vertue and goodness out of the soul of man to which purpose I think our Divines generally speak when they allow of some holy relicks something of the Image of God remaining in the most degenerate souls however all men have reduced the same to a very poor and inconsiderable spark and many have raked that very spark under ashes too and imprisoned that remainder of truth in unrighteousness living according to those unnatural and forreign principles and conceptions that they have unhappily drunk in Hence it is I suppose that sin and wickedness are so often stiled the defilement of the soul Now we know that whatsoever defileth is adventitious and improper And hence it is that sin many times slings and wounds the consciences of those that take most pleasure in it namely being so perfectly contrary to this noble and inbred sense of the soul allowing then this natural sympathy that the soul of man hath with its Creator it will be easie to give a Philosophical account of that peace joy and triumph of which the soul must needs be possest or rather indeed transported with that finds and feels it self in conjunction with its centre in the dearest embraces of its Creator It need not seem strange that the soul should mightily congratulate it self in its arrival at its own haven nay it were strange if it should not dissolve into secret joy and pleasure in the hearty entertainments of so blessed and proper a guest as God is unto it Nay indeed it were unreasonable to imagine that the conjunction of so noble and discerning faculties with so perfect and proper an object should not beget the truest and sincerest delight and pleasure imaginable The delights of an earthly and sensual mind are filthy and dreggy in comparison of these pleasures of the refined and purified soul which must needs live most gracefully triumphantly and deliciously when it converseth with God most intimately Certainly if there be any innocent and well-natur'd self-feeling or self-pleasing in the world this is it though indeed to speak truly it deserves a better name It cannot be but that a godly soul being in its right senses should tast a sweetness in these pure and divine accomplishments wrought in it by the eternal Spirit of Righteousness which self-pleasing is no more blameable than that natural pleasure which every creature finds in the enjoyment of that which is most aptly accommodated to its necessities and most perfective of its happiness which pleasure I say ariseth in the soul from its sensible union with God in the spirit and enjoyment of him By which enjoyment of God you will easily perceive that I do not mean the bare pardon of sin or an abstract Justification for this is not the attainment that is perfective of the soul neither could it alone if we could suppose it alone fill up the capacities of the soul or make it happy however the rapturous joys of the unprincipled hypocrite spring principally from the opinion and false apprehension of this which indeed I take to be a notable though not infallible sign of a mercenary low-spirited and fleshly-minded Christian but by it I mean the souls being really regenerated into the Image of God consisting in knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and her implantation into the â—oot Christ Jesus by which she partakes of his divine life power and spirit And yet besides this I conceive there is a more Theological account to be given of these joys and pleasures which the renewed soul doth so plentifully reap upon her return to God from
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
God why it renders up its whole self unto him Faith is a giving grace as well as a receiving it gives up the soul back to Christ as well as take Christ into the soul it sucks in strength and grace from God and reciprocally spends the same and the whole powers of the soul upon him The happiness of a godly soul doth not consist in cessation and rest the soul it self being a powerful and Active Being the happiness of it the very rest of it must also be active and vigorous Where there is communion there must needs be quick and lively returns reciprocations reflections and correspondencies the drawings of God are answered with the souls running Cant. 1. 41. The motion of Christs fingers begets a motion in the Christians soul Cant. 5. 4. My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him These are the divine and harmoneous responses which are made and maintained in the godly soul the Temple of the living God Oh shake of that lazy and drowsie spirit which hath so benummed many in this cold and stupid age of the world work out your Salvation with all care and diligence If your Religion be nothing but a spiritual kind of sleep youâ— Heaven will prove to be nothing but a pleasant kind of dream Communion with God speaks something divine active vigorous The life of a Christian doth not consist only in cessation from evil reformation of sin or dying thereunto Mortification is but one part of Regeneration It is the conceit and I doubt the deceit of many nominal Christians that if they can but keep up an indifferent even spirit and conversation free from gross and scandalous sins from day to day they are happy enough their utmost ambition is to be innocent and harmless This indeed is necessary and praise worthy but surely the happiness of a soul lyes higher Thus happy are all the Creatures that keep in the station and keep up the order prescribed them of God Thus happy is the Sun in the Firmament running his race continually and never departing from the office which is assigned to it But the soul of man is capable of a higher kind of happiness viz. communion with God which is when the faculties thereof being awakened refined and acted by the spirit of God do reciprocally act and spend themselves upon him longing to be perfectly swallowed up in him and to be all that which God himself is as far as the Creature is capable to drink in the perfections of the Creator and become one with his Maker This is that truly noble and divine life which is here called communion with God which the high-spirited and generous soul labours yet more and more to be growing up into and perfected in Keep your selves with David from your iniquities it is something to be freed from the guilt and power of sin but there is somewhat higher than this a more excellent attainment a more divine accomplishment go on therefore with the same David and aspire after this pure and blissful state this Heaven upon earth waiting for the more ample and glorious manifestations of God to you and in you more than they that watch for the morning as he did Psal 130. 6. This inference was only of instruction but the sweetness and needfulness of the subject almost prevails with me to turn it into an earnest exhortation but that I would not prevent my self Therefore I proceed to the next way of improving this doctrine which shall be by way of conviction or Reprehension 1. Our fellowship is It reproves them that can take up with a shall be a Heaven to come I am now speaking not to the worst of men whose very souls are swallowed up in sensual enjoyments and imprisoned in their senses For these men either think of no Heaven at all or else they place their Heaven and happiness in the enjoyment of themselves or of the creature Nor yet do I speak to those men who being perswaded of a future state do indeed wish for a Heaven to come but then it is a poor kind of low and earthly Heaven consisting in case rest safety freedom from troubles or torments which is the best happiness which most men understand the highest Heaven that any carnal mind can see or soar up to But I am speaking to a better and finer sort of souls than these that are verily possest with a sense of a pure and spiritual Heaven in the world to come yea they are so over-powered with the foresight of it as that they do earnestly expect and wish for it yea the hopes of it do sustain and strengthen their hearts under the manifold temptations and persecutions of this present world they are so verily perswaded of the truth of it and of their own title to it too that they are content to abide this long and disconsolate night of dimness and anguish and frightfulness meerly in expectation of the dawning of that day that clear and bright day of their glorious and everlasting Redemption And herein I am far from blaming them nay I must needs commend their magnanimous faith and self-denyal But in the mean time they dwell too much upon Heaven as a future state and comfort themselves only in a happiness to come not longing and labouring to find a Heaven opened within themselves a beginning of eternal bliss brought into themselves they are too well content with a certain reversion and do not eagerly enough endeavour a present possession to be actually enstated in so much of the inheritance of souls as may fall to their share even in this lower world This slothful temper and inactivity I do condemn wherever it is found yea though it be in my own soul Every thing in the world by a natural principle thirsts after its proper rest and a happiness suitable to the nature of it no creature can be content though it may be constrained to be at a distance from its centre but is still carryed out towards its own perfection And why then should a godly soul who is Gods only new creature in the world be content with a state of imperfections why should not he as eagerly coveâ— and as earnestly pursue the most intimate and close communion and conjunction with his God as they do with their respective centers Can any earthly sensual man be content with an inheritance in reversion so as to suspend his minding and following of the world till hereafter Can any ambitious spirit who places his main happiness and contentment in popular estimation and worldly greatness be content to stand gazing at preferments will he be willing to sit still and wait till this drop into his mouth No no there is a raging thirst in the soul which will not suffer it to be at rest but is still awakening and provoking all the powers of the whole man till they arise and fetch in water to quench it And therefore we read of men
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