and the New Covenant as it is laid down by the Apostle Paul A more General Ansiver to this enquiry together with a General observation of the Apostle's main End in opposing Faith to the Works of the Law viz. To beat down the Jewish proud conceit of Merit A more particular and Distinct answer to the Enquiry viz. That the Law or Old Covenant is considered only as an External administration a dead thing in it self a Dispensation consisting in an Outward and Written Law of Precepts but the Gospel or New Covenant is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men an Inward manifestation of Divine Life and a living Impression upon the Minds and Spirits of Men. This proved from several Testimonies of Scripture pag. 308. Chap. V. Two Propositions for the better understanding of the Doctrine of Justification and Divine Acceptance 1. Prop. That the Divine judgment and estimation of every thing is according to the truth of the thing and God's acceptance or disacceptance of things is suitable to his judgment On what account S. James does attribute a kind of Justification to Good works 2. Prop. God's justifying of Sinners in pardoning their Sins carries in it a necessary reference to the sanctifying of their Natures This abundantly proved from the Nature of the thing pag. 325. Chap. VI. How the Gospel-righteousness is conveighed to us by Faith made to appear from these two Considerations 1. The Gospel lays a strong foundation of a chearfull dependance upon the Grace and Love of God and affiance in it This confirmed by several Gospel-expressions containing plainly in them the most strong Motives and Encouragements to all ingenuous addresses to God to all chearfull dependance on him and confident expectation of all assistance from him 2. A true Evangelical Faith is no lazy or languid thing but an ardent breathing and thirsting after Divine grace and righteousness it looks beyond a mere pardon of sin and mainly pursues after an inward participation of the Divine nature The mighty power of a living Faith in the Love and Goodness of God discoursed of throughout the whole Chapter pag. 332. Chap. VII An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse How the whole business and Undertaking of Christ is eminently available both to give full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to encourage us to Godliness or a God-like righteousness briefly represented in sundry Particulars pag. 343. DISCOURSE VIII OF THE SHORTNESS OF A Pharisaick Righteousness CHap. I. A General account of men's Mistakes about Religion Men are no where more lazy and sluggish and more apt to delude themselves then in matters of Religion The Religion of most men is but an Image and Resemblance of their own Fansies The Method propounded for discoursing upon those words in S. Matthew 1. To discover some of the Mistakes and False Notions about Religion 2. To discover the Reason of these Mistakes A brief Explication of the Words pag. 349. Chap. II. An Account of men's Mistakes about Religion in 4 Particulars 1. A Partial obedience to some Particular Precepts The False Spirit of Religion spends it self in some Particulars is confin'd is overswayed by some prevailing Lust. Men of this spirit may by some Book-skill and a zeal about the Externals of Religion loose the sense of their own Guiltiness and of their deficiencies in the Essentials of Godliness and fansy themselves nearly related to God Where the true Spirit of Religion is it informs and actuates the whole man it will not be confin'd but will be absolute within us and not suffer any corrupt Interest to grow by it p. 353. Chap. III. The Second Mistake about Religion viz. A meer complyance of the Outward man with the Law of God True Religion seats it self in the Centre of mens Souls and first brings the Inward man into Obedience to the Law of God the Superficiall Religion intermeddles chiefly with the Circumference and Outside of men or rests in an outward abstaining from some Sins Of Speculative and the most close and Spiritual wickedness within How apt men are to sink all Religion into Opinions and External Forms pag. 357. Chap. IV. The Third Mistake about Religion viz. A constrained and forc'd Obedience to God's Commandments The Religion of many some of whom would seem most abhorrent from Superstition is nothing else but Superstition properly so called False Religionists having no inward sense of the Divine Goodness cannot truly love God Yet their sowre and dreadfull apprehensions of God compell them to serve him A slavish spirit in Religion may be very prodigal in such kind of serving God as doth not pinch their Corruptions but in the great and weightier matters of Religion in such things as prejudice their beloved Lusts it is very needy and sparing This servile Spirit has low and mean thoughts of God but an high opinion of its Outward services as conceiting that by such cheap things God is gratified and becomes indebted to it The different Effects of Love and Slavish fear in the truly and in the falsly Religious pag. 361. Chap. V. The Fourth and last Mistake about Religion When a mere Mechanical and Artificial Religion is taken for that which is a true Impression of Heaven upon the Souls of men and which moves like a new Nature How Religion is by some made a piece of Art and how there may be specious and plausible Imitations of the Internals of Religion as well as of the Externals The Method and Power of Fansy in contriving such Artificial imitations How apt men are in these to deceive both themselves and others The Difference between those that are govern'd in their Religion by Fansy and those that are actuated by the Divine Spirit and in whom Religion is a living Form That True Religion is no Art but a new Nature Religion discovers it self best in a Serene and clear Temper of Mind in deep Humility Meekness Self-denial Universal love of God and all true Goodness p. 366. DISCOURSE IX OF THE EXCELLENCY and NOBLENESS OF RELIGION CHap. I. 1. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Original and Fountain it comes from Heaven and moves towards Heaven again God the First Excellency and Primitive Perfection All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approch to and Participation of the First Perfection Religion the greatest Participation of God none capable of this Divine Communication but the Highest of created Beings and consequently Religion is the greatest Excellency A twofold Fountain in God whence Religion flows viz. 1. His Nature 2. His Will Of Truth Natural and Revealed Of an Outward and Inward Revelation of God's Will pag. 380. Chap. II. 2. The Nobleness of Religion in respect of it's Nature briefly discovered in some Particulars How a man actuated by Religion 1. lives above the world 2. converses with himself and knows how to love value and reverence himself in the best sense 3. lives above himself not
Israelites became shining and clear without any defilement and their Bodies did shine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the brightness of the Firmament And then thus concludeth all When the Israelites received the Law upon Mount Sinai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world was then perfum'd with a most aromatick smell and Heaven and Earth were established and the Holy Blessed One was known above and below and he ascended in his glory above all things By all which Mystical and Allegorical Expressions our Author seems to aim at this main Scope viz. To set forth the Law as that which of it self was sufficient without any other Dispensation from God for the perfecting of those to whom it was dispensed and to make them Comprehensours of all Righteousness here and Glory hereafter Which they are wont to set forth in that transcendent state of Perfection which the Israelites were in at the receiving of the Law whence it hath been an ancient Maxime amongst them In Statione montis Sinai Israelitae erant sicut Angeli ministerii And thus we have endeavoured to make good that which we first propounded namely to shew That the grand Opinion of the Jews concerning the way to Life and Happiness was this viz. That the Law of God externally dispensed and only furnished out to them in Tables of Stone and a Parchment-roll conjoined with the power of their own Free-will was sufficient both to procure them acceptance with God and to acquire Merit enough to carry them with spread sails into the Harbour of Eternal rest and blessedness So that by this time we may see that those Disputes which S. Paul and other Apostles maintain against the Jews touching the Law and Faith were not merely about that one Question Whether Justification formally and precisely respects Faith alone but were of a much greater latitude CHAP. IV. The Second Enquiry Concerning the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith and the true difference between the Law and the Gospel the Old and the New Covenant as it is laid down by the Apostle Paul A more General Answer to this enquiry together with a General observation of the Apostle's main End in opposing Faith to the Works of the Law viz. To beat down the Jewish proud conceit of Merit A more particular and Distinct answer to the Enquiry viz. That the Law or Old Covenant is considered only as an External administration a dead thing in it self a Dispensation consisting in an Outward and Written Law of Precepts But the Gospel or New Covenant is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men an Inward manifestation of Divine life and a living Impression upon the Minds and Spirits of Men. This proved from several Testimonies of Scripture HAving done with the First Enquiry we now come to the Second which was this What the Evangelical Righteousness or the Righteousness of Faith is which the Apostle sets up against that of the Law and in what Notion the Law is considered by the Apostle Which in summe was this viz. That the Law was the Ministery of death and in it self an External and Liveless thing neither could it procure or beget that Divine life and spiritual Form of Godliness in the Souls of men which God expects from all the heirs of Glory nor that Glory which is only consequent upon a true Divine life Whereas on the other side the Gospel is set forth as a mighty Efflux and Emanation of life and spirit freely issuing forth from an Omnipotent source of Grace and Love as that true God-like vital influence whereby the Divinity derives it self into the Souls of men enlivening and transforming them into its own likeness and strongly imprinting upon them a Copy of its own Beauty and Goodness Like the Spermatical virtue of the Heavens which spreads it self freely upon this Lower world and subtily insinuating it self into this benummed feeble earthly Matter begets life and motion in it Briefly It is that whereby God comes to dwell in us and we in him But that we may the more distinctly unfold the Difference between That Righteousness which is of the Law That which is of Faith so the better shew how the Apostle undermines that fabrick of Happiness which the Jews had built up for themselves we shall observe First in general That the main thing which the Apostle endeavours to beat down was that proud and arrogant conceit which they had of Merit and to advance against it the notion of the Divine grace and bounty as the only Fountain of all Righteousness and Happiness For indeed that which all those Jewish notions which we have before taken notice of aim principally at was the advancing of the weakened Powers of Nature into such an height of Perfection as might render them capable of Meriting at Gods hands and that Perfection which they speak so much of as is clear from what hath been said was nothing else but a mere sublimation of their own Natural Powers and Principles performed by the strength of their own Fancies And therefore these Contractors with Heaven were so pleased to look upon Eternal life as a fair Purchase which they might make for themselves at their own charge as if the spring and rise of all were in themselves their eyes were so much dazled with those foolish fires of Merit and Reward kindled in their own Fancies that they could not see that light of Divine grace and bounty which shone about them And this Fastus and swelling pride of theirs if I mistake not is that which S. Paul principally endeavours to chastise in advancing Faith so much as he doth in opposition to the works of the Law For which purpose he spends the First and Second Chapters of this Epistle to the Romans in drawing up a charge of such a nature both against Gentiles and Jews but principally against the Jews who were the grand Justitiaries that might make them bethink themselves of imploring Mercy and of laying aside all plea of Law and Justice and so chap. 3. 27. he shuts up all with a severe check to such presumptuous arrogance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where then is boasting This seems then to be the main End which S. Paul every where aims at in opposing Faith to the works of the Law namely to establish the Foundation of Righteousness and Happiness upon the Free mercy and grace of God the glorifying and magnifying of which in the real manifestations of it he holds forth upon all occasions as the designe plot of the Gospel-administration seeing it is impossible for men by any Works which they can perform to satisfie God's Justice for those Sins which they have committed against him or truly to comply with his Divine will without his Divine assistance So that the Method of reconciling men to God and reducing of straying Souls back again to him was to be attributed wholy to another Original then that which the Jews imagined But Secondly That
Righteousness of Faith which the Apostle sets up against the Law and compares with it is indeed in its own nature a Vital and Spiritual administration wherein God converseth with Man whereas the Law was merely an External or Dead thing in it self not able to beget any true Divine life in the Souls of Men. All that Legal Righteousness which the Jews boasted so much of was but from the Earth earthly consisting merely in External performances so falling extremely short of that Internal God-like frame of Spirit which is necessary for a true conjunction and union of the Souls of Men with God and making of them capable of true Blessedness But that we may the more distinctly handle this Argument we shall endeavour to unfold the true Difference between the Law and the Gospel as it seems evidently to be laid down every where by S. Paul in his Epistles and the Difference between them is clearly this viz. That the Law was merely an External thing consisting in such Precepts which had only an Outward administration but the Gospel is an Internal thing a Vital Form and Principle seating it self in the Minds and Spirits of Men. And this is the most proper and formal Difference between the Law and Gospel that the one is considered only as an External administration and the other as an Internal And therefore the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. 6 7. calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the letter and of death it being in it self but a dead letter as all that which is without a mans Soul must needs be But on the other side he calls the Gospel because of the Intrinsecal and Vital administration thereof in living impressions upon the Souls of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of the Spirit and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of righteousness By which he cannot mean the History of the Gospel or those Credenda propounded to us to believe for this would make the Gospel it self as much an External thing as the Law was and according to the External administration as much a killing or dead letter as the Law was and so we see that the preaching of Christ crucified was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness But indeed he means a Vital efflux from God upon the Souls of men whereby they are made partakers of Life and Strength from him and therefore ver 7. he thus Exegetically expounds his own meaning of that short description of the Law namely that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I think may be fitly thus translated it was a dead or liveless administration for so sometimes by an Hebraisme the Genitive case in regimine is put for the Adjective or else an administration of death exhibited in letters and engraven in tables of Stone and therefore he tells us ver 6. what the Effect of it was in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The letter killeth as indeed all External precepts which have not a proper vital radication in the Souls of men whereby they are able to secure them from the transgression of them must needs doe Now to this dead or killing letter he opposes ver 8. a quickning Spirit or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of the Spirit which afterwards v. 9. he expounds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness that is the Evangelical administration So that the Gospel or Evangelical administration must be an Internal impression a vivacious and Energetical Spirit and Principle of Righteousness in the Souls of men whereby they are inwardly enabled to express a real conformity thereto Upon this Ground the Apostle further pursues the Effects of both these from the 14. verse to the end By all which the Apostle means to set forth to us How vast a Difference there is between the External manifestations of God in a Law of Commandements and those Internal appearances of God whereby he discovers the mighty power of his Goodness to the Souls of men Though the History and outward Communication of the Gospel to us in scriptis is to be always acknowledged as a special mercy advantage and certainly no less Privilege to Christians then it was to the Jews to be the Depositaries of the Oracles of God yet it is plain that the Apostle where he compares the Law and the Gospel and in other places doth by the Gospel mean something which is more then a piece of Book-learning or an Historical Narration of the free love of God in the several contrivances of it for the Redemption of mankind For if this were all that is meant properly by the Gospel I see no reason why it should not be counted as weak and impotent a thing as dead a letter as the Law was as we intimated before and so there would be no such vast Difference between them as the Apostle asserts there is the one being properly an External declaration of Gods will the other an Internal manifestation of Divine life upon mens Souls and therefore Gal. 3. 21. he so distinguisheth between this double Dispensation of God that this Evangelical dispensation is a vital and quickening thing able to beget a Soul and Form of Divine goodness upon the Souls of men which because the Law could not doe it was laid aside as being insufficient to restore man to the favour of God or to make him partaker of his righteousness If there had been a Law which could have given life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verily Righteousness should have been by the Law where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seems to mean the same thing which he meant by it when in his Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the Oeconomy of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of righteousness or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken among the Jewish writers for acceptance with God and that Internal form of Righteousness that qualifies the Soul for Eternal life and so he takes it in a far more large and ample sense then that External righteousness of Justification is and indeed it seems to express the Just state of those who are renewed by the Spirit of God and made partakers of that Divine life which is emphatically called the Seed of God For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness which he here speaks of is the proper result of an enlivening and quickening Law which is this New Law of the Gospel in opposition to that Old Law which was administred only in scriptis and therefore this New Law is called in the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 8. 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the better Covenant whereas the Old was faulty In which place this is put down as the Formal difference between the Legal and Evangelical administration or the Old and New Covenant That the Old Covenant was only externally promulged and wrapt up as it were in Ink and Parchment or as best engraven
upon tables of Stone whereas this New Covenant is set forth in living characters imprinted upon the Vital powers of mens Souls as we have ver 10 11. This is the Covenant that I will make c. I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts and therefore the Old Covenant is v. 7. said not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unblamable or faultless thing because it was not able to keep off trangressions or hinder the violation of it self no more then an Inscription upon some Pillar or Monument is able to inspire life into those that read it and converse with it the Old Law or Covenant being in this respect no other then all other Civil Constitutions are which receive their efficacy merely from the willing compliance of mens Minds with them so that they must be enlivened by the Subject that receivs them being dead things in themselves But the Evangelical or New Law is such a thing as is an Efflux of life and power from God himself the Original thereof produceth life wheresoever it comes And to this double Dispensation viz. of Law and Gospel doth S. Paul clearly refer 2 Cor. 3. 3. You are the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of Stone which last words are a plain Gloss upon that mundane kind of administring the Law in a mere External way to which he opposeth the Gospel And this Argument he further pursues in the 7 and 8 chapters of the Epistle to the Romans in which last chap. v. 2. he stiles the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of the spirit of life which was able to destroy the power of Sin and to introduce such a spiritual and heavenly frame of Soul into men as whereby they might be enabled to express a chearfull compliance with the Law of God and demonstrate a true heavenly conversation and God-like life in this world We read in Iamblichus and others of the many preparatory Experiments used by Pythagoras to try his Scholars whether they were fit to receive the more sublime and sacred pieces of his Philosophy and that he was wont to communicate these only to Souls in a due degree purified and prepared for such doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what did all this signifie but only this that he might by all these Methods work and mold the Minds of his Hearers into such a fit Temper as that he might the better stamp the Seal of his more Divine Doctrine upon them and that his Discourses to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things just and lovely and good might be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly and really in the Soul that I may use Plato's words in his Phaedrus where he commends the Impressions of Truth which are made upon mens Souls above all outward Writings which he therefore compares to dead pictures By this we see what the wisest and best Philosophers thought of this Internal writing But it peculiarly belongs to God to write the Laws of Goodness in the Tables of mens hearts All the outward Teachings of men are but dead things in themselves But God's imprinting his Mind and Will upon mens hearts is properly that which is called the Teaching of God and then they become living Laws written in the living Tables of mens Hearts fitted to receive and retain Divine impressions I shall only adde that speech of a Chymist not impertinent in this place Non tam discendo quà m patiendo divina perficitur Mens humana And that we may come a little nearer to these words upon which all this present Discourse is built this seems to be the Scope of his argument in this place where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law of righteousness may fairly be parallel'd with that which before he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of the spirit and which he therefore calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of faith because it is received from God in a way of believing For I cannot easily think that he should mean nothing else in this place but merely the Righteousness of Justification as some would perswade us but rather that his Sense is much more comprehensive so as to include the state of Gospel-dispensation which includes not only Pardon of sins but an Inward spirit of Love Power and of a sound Mind as he expresseth it 2 Tim. 1. 7. And this he thus opposeth to the Law Rom. 10. 6 c. But the Righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into heaven c. or Who shall descend into the deep But what saith it The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach In which words Cunaeus in his De Repub. Hebr. would have us to understand some Cabbala or Tradition amongst the Jews for this meaning of that place Deut. 30. 12. from which these words are borrowed which as they there stand seem not to carry that Evangelical sense which here S. Paul expounds them into though yet Cunaeus hath not given us any reason for this opinion of his But indeed the Jewish writers generally who were acquainted with the principles of the Cabbala commenting upon that place do wholly refer it to the Times of the Messiah making it parallel with that place of Jeremy which defines the New Covenant to be a writing of the Law of God in mens hearts And thus that Life and Salvation that results from the Righteousness of Faith is all as Faith it self is deriving from God gratuitously dispensing himself to the Minds of men Whereas if Life could have been by the Law it s Original and Principal must have been resolved into men themselves who must have acted that dead matter without them and have produced that Virtue and Energy in it by their exercising themselves therein which of it self it had not as the Observance of any Law enables that Law it self to dispense that Reward which is due to the observance of it and therefore the Righteousness of the Law was so defin'd that he that did those things should live in them And thus the New Testament every where seems to present to us this twofold Dispensation or Oeconomy the one consisting in an External and written law of Precepts the other in Inward life and power Which S. Austin hath well pursued in his Book de Litera Spiritu from whom Aquinas who endeavours to tread in his foot-steps seems to have taken first of all an occasion of moving that Question Utrum Lex nova sit lex scripta vel lex indita and thus resolves it That the New Law or Gospel is not properly lex scripta as the Old was but Lex indita and that the Old Law is foris scripta the other intus scripta written in the tables of the Heart Now from all this we may easily
through them into the thing signified thereby and so embraced Shadows in stead of Substance and made account to build up Happiness and Heaven upon that Earthly Law to which properly the Land of Canaan was annex'd whereas indeed this Law should have been their School-master to have led them to Christ whose Law it prefigured which that it might doe the more effectually God had annexed to the breach of any one part of it such severe Curses that they might from thence perceive how much need they had of some further Dispensation And therefore this state of theirs is set forth by a State of bondage or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For all External precepts carry perpetually an aspect of austerity and rigour to those Minds that are not informed by the internal sweetness of them And this is it only which makes the Gospel or the New Law to be a Free Noble and Generous thing because it is seated in the Souls of men and therefore Aquinas out of Austin hath well observed another difference between the Law and Gospel Brevis differentia inter Legem Evangelium est Timor Amor. This I the rather observe because the true meaning of that Spirit of Bondage which the Apostle speaks of is frequently mistaken We might further if need were for a confirmation of this which we have spoken concerning the Typicalness of the whole Jewish Oeconomy appeal to the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians which cannot well be understood without this Notion where we have the Jewish Church as a Type of the true Evangelical Church brought in as a Child in it's Minority in servitude under Tutors and Governours shut up under the Law till the time of that Emphatical revelation of the great Mysterie of God should come till the Day should break and all the shadows of the Night flee away That I may return from this Digression to the Argument we before pursued this briefly may be added That under the Old Covenant and in the time of the Law there were amongst the Jews some that were Evangelized that were re non nomine Christiani as under the Gospel there are many that do Judaize are of as Legal and Servile Spirits as the Jews children of the Bond-woman resting in mere External observances of Religion in an outward seeming Purity in a Form of Godliness as did the Scribes and Pharisees of old From what hath hitherto been discoursed I hope the Difference between both Covenants clearly appears and that the Gospel was not brought in only to hold forth a new Platform and Model of Religion it was not brought in only to refine some Notions of Truth that might formerly seem discoloured and disfigured by a multitude of Legal rites and ceremonies it was not to cast our Opinions concerning the Way of Life and Happiness only into a New mould and shape in a Pedagogical kind of way it is not so much a System and Body of saving Divinity but the Spirit and vital Influx of it spreading it self over all the Powers of mens Souls and quickening them into a Divine life it is not so properly a Doctrine that is wrapt up in ink and paper as it is Vitalis Scientia a living impression made upon the Soul and Spirit We may in a true sense be as Legal as ever the Jews were if we converse with the Gospel as a thing only without us and be as far short of the Righteousness of God as they were if we make the Righteousness which is of Christ by Faith to serve us only as an Outward Covering and endeavour not after an Internal transformation of our Minds and Souls into it The Gospel does not so much consist in Verbis as in Virtute Neither doth Evangelical dispensation therefore please God so much more then the Legal did because as a finer contrivance of his Infinite understanding it more clearly discovers the Way of Salvation to the Minds of men but chiefly because it is a more Powerful Efflux of his Divine goodness upon them as being the true Seed of a happy Immortality continually thriving and growing on to perfection I shall adde further The Gospel does not therefore hold forth such a transcendent priviledge and advantage above what the Law did only because it acquaints us that Christ our true High priest is ascended up into the Holy of holies and there in stead of the bloud of Bulls and Goats hath sprinkled the Ark and Mercy-seat above with his own bloud but also because it conveys that bloud of sprinkling into our defiled Consciences to purge them from dead works Farr be it from me to disparage in the least the Merit of Christ's bloud his becoming obedient unto death whereby we are justified But I doubt sometimes some of our Dogmata and Notions about Justification may puff us up in far higher and goodlier conceits of our selves then God hath of us and that we profanely make the unspotted righteousness of Christ to serve only as a Covering to wrap up our foul deformities and filthy vices in and when we have done think our selvs in as good credit and repute with God as we are with our selves and that we are become Heaven's darlings as much as we are our own I doubt not but the Merit and Obedience of our Saviour gain us favour with God and potently move down the benign influences of Heaven upon us But yet I think we may sometimes be too lavish and wanton in our imaginations in fondly conceiting a greater change in the Esteem which God hath of us then becomes us too little reckon upon the Real and Vital Emanations of his favour upon us Therefore for the further clearing of what hath been already said and laying a ground upon which the next part of our Discourse viz. Concerning the Conveiance of this God-like righteousness to us by Faith is to proceed We shall here speak something more to the business of Justification and Divine Acceptance which we shall dispatch in two Particulars CHAP. V. Two Propositions for the better understanding of the Doctrine of Justification and Divine Acceptance 1. Prop. That the Divine judgment and estimation of every thing is according to the truth of the thing and God's acceptance or disacceptance of things is suitable to his judgment On what account S. James does attribute a kind of Justification to Good works 2. Prop. Gods justifying of Sinners in pardoning their Sins carries in it a necessary reference to the sanctifying of their Natures This abundantly proved from the Nature of the thing OUR first Proposition is this The Divine judgment and estimation of every thing is according to the truth of the thing and Gods acceptance or disacceptance of things is suitable and proportionable to his judgment Thus S. Peter plainly tells us Act. 10. God is no respecter of persons But every one that worketh righteousness is accepted of him And God himself posed Cain who had entertained those unworthy
then Fellow of Emman Col. afterwards Provost of Kings College Dr. Whichcote to whom for his Directions and Encouragements of him in his Studies his seasonable provision for his support and maintenance when he was a young Scholar as also upon other obliging Considerations our Author did ever express a great and singular regard But besides I considered him which was more as a true Servant and Friend of God and to such a one and what relates to such I thought that I owed no less care and diligence The former Title a Servant of God is very often in Scripture given to that incomparable person Moses incomparable for his Philosophical accomplishments and knowledg of Nature as also for his Political Wisdom and great abilities in the Conduct and managing of affairs and in speaking excellent sense strong and clear Reason in any business and Case that was before him for he was mighty in words and in deeds Acts 7. and of both these kinds of Knowledge wherein Moses excell'd as also in the more recondite and mysterious knowledge of the Egyptians there are several Instances and Proofs in the Pentateuch written by him incomparable as well for the loveliness of his Disposition and Temper the inward ornament and beauty of a meek and humble Spirit as for the extraordinary amiableness of his outward person and incomparable for his unexampled Self-denial in the midst of the greatest allurements and most tempting advantages of this world And from all these great Accomplishments and Perfections in Moses it appears how excellently he was qualified and enabled to answer that Title The Servant of God more frequently given to him in Scripture then unto any other The other Title a Friend of God is given to Abraham the Father of the Faithful an eminent Exemplar of Self-resignation and Obedience even in Trials of the greatest difficulty and it is given to him thrice in Scripture 2 Chron. 20. 7. Esay 41. 8. James 2. 23. and plainly implied in Genes 18. 17. Shall I hide from Abraham c. but express'd in the Jerusalem Targum there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Philo Jud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is less insinuated concerning Moses with whom God is said to have spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouth to mouth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouth to mouth as a man speaketh unto his friend And how fitly and properly both these Titles were verified concerning our Author who was a faithful hearty and industrious Servant of God counting it his Duty and Dignity his Meat and Drink to doe the will of his Master in heaven and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from his very Soul and with good will the characters of a good Servant and who was dearly affected towards God and treated by God as a Friend may appear from that Account of him represented in the Sermon at his Funeral I might easily fill much Paper if I should particularly recount those many Excellencies that shined forth in him But I would study to be short I might truly say That he was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both a Righteous and truly Honest man and also a Good man He was a Follower and Imitator of God in Purity and Holiness in Benignity Goodness and Love a Love enlarged as God's Love is whose Goodness overflows and spreads it self to all and his tender mercies are over all his works He was a Lover of our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity a Lover of his Spirit and of his Life a Lover of his Excellent Laws and Rules of holy life a serious Practiser of his Sermon in the Mount that Best Sermon that ever was preach'd and yet none more generally neglected by those that call themselves Christians though the observance of it be for the true Interest both of mens Souls and of Christian States and Common-wealths and accordingly as being the surest way to their true Settlement and Establishment it is compared to the building upon a Rock Matth. 7. 24. To be short He was a Christian not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then a little even wholly and altogether such a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly and in good earnest Religious he was but without any Vaingloriousness and Ostentation not so much a talking or a disputing as a living a doing and an obeying Christian one inwardly acquainted with the Simplicity and Power of Godliness but no admirer of the Pharisaick forms and Sanctimonious shews though never so goodly and specious which cannot and do not affect the adult and strong Christians though they may and doe those that are unskillful and weak For in this weak and low state of the divided Churches in Christendom weak and slight things especially if they make a fair shew in the flesh as the Apostle speaks are most esteemed whereas in the mean time the weightier matters of the Law the most concerning and Substantial parts of Religion are passed over disregarded by them as being grievous to them no way for their turns no way for their corrupt interests fleshly ease and worldly advantages But God's thoughts are not as their thoughts The Circumcision which is of the heart and in the spirit is that whose praise is of God though not of men and that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God What I shall further observe concerning the Author is only this That he was Eminent as well in those Perfections which have most of Divine worth and excellency in them and rendred him a truly God-like man as in those other Perfections and Accomplishments of the Mind which rendred him a very Rational and Learned man and withall in the midst of all these great Accomplishments as Eminent and Exemplary in unaffected Humility and true Lowliness of Mind And herein he was like to Moses that Servant and Friend of God who was most meek and lowly in heart as our Lord is also said to be Mat. 11. in this as in all other respects greater then Moses who was vir mitissimus above all the men which were upon the face of the Earth Num. 12. And thus he excell'd others as much in Humility as he did in Knowledg in that thing which though in a lesser degree in others is apt to puff up and swell them with Pride and Self-conceit But Moses was humble though he was a Person of brave parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus speaks of him and having had the advantages of a most ingenuous Education was admirably accomplish'd in the choicest parts of Knowledg and * learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians whereby some of the Antients understood the Mysterious Hieroglyphical learning Natural Philosophy Musick Physick and Mathematicks And for this last to omit the rest how excellent this Humble man the Author was therein did appear
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL CHap. I. The First and main Principles of Religion viz. 1. That God is 2. That God is a rewarder of them that seek him Wherein is included the Great Article of the Immortality of the Soul These two Principles acknowledged by religious and serious persons in all Ages 3. That God communicates himself to mankind by Christ. The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul discoursed of in the first place and why pag. 59. Chap. II. Some Considerations preparatory to the proof of the Souls Immortality pag. 63. Chap. III. The First Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That the Soul of man is not Corporeal The gross absurdities upon the Supposition that the Soul is a Complex of fluid Atomes or that it is made up by a fortuitous Concourse of Atomes which is Epicurus his Notion concerning Body The Principles and Dogmata of the Epicurean Philosophy in opposition to the Immateriall and Incorporeall nature of the Soul asserted by Lucretius but discovered to be false and insufficient That Motion cannot arise from Body or Matter Nor can the power of Sensation arise from Matter Much less can Reason That all Humane knowledge hath not its rise from Sense The proper function of Sense and that it is never deceived An Addition of Three Considerations for the enforcing of this first Argument and further clearing the Immateriality of the Soul That there is in man a Faculty which 1. controlls Sense and 2. collects and unites all the Perceptions of our several Senses 3. That Memory and Prevision are not explicable upon the supposition of Matter and Motion pag. 68. Chap. IV. The Second Argument for the Immortality of the Soul Actions either Automatical or Spontaneous That Spontaneous and Elicite Actions evidence the distinction of the Soul from the Body Lucretius his Evasion very slight and weak That the Liberty of the Will is inconsistent with the Epicurean principles That the Conflict of Reason against the Sensitive Appetite argues a Being in us superiour to Matter pag. 85. Chap. V. The Third Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That Mathematical Notions argue the Soul to be of a true Spiritual and Immaterial Nature pag. 93. Chap. VI. The Fourth Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That those clear and stable Ideas of Truth which are in Man's Mind evince an Immortal and Immaterial Substance residing in us distinct from the Body The Soul more knowable then the Body Some passages out of Plotinus and Proclus for the further confirming of this Argument pag. 96. Chap. VII What it is that beyond the Highest and most subtile Speculations whatsoever does clear and evidence to a Good man the Immortality of his Soul That True Goodness and Vertue begets the most raised Sense of this Immortality Plotinus his excellent Discourse to this purpose pag. 101. Chap. VIII An Appendix containing an Enquiry into the Sense and Opinion of Aristotle concerning the Immortality of the Soul That according to him the Rational Soul is separable from the Body and Immortal The true meaning of his Intellectus Agens and Patiens pag. 106. Chap. IX A main Difficulty concerning the Immortality of the Soul viz. The strong Sympathy of the Soul with the Body answered An Answer to another Enquiry viz. Under what account Impressions deriv'd from the Body do fall in Morality p. 112. DISCOURSE V. OF THE EXISTENCE NATURE OF GOD. CHap. I. That the Best way to know God is by an attentive reflexion upon our own Souls God more clearly and lively pictur'd upon the Souls of Men then upon any part of the Sensible World pag 123. Chap. II. How the Contemplation of our own Souls and a right Reflexion upon the Operations thereof may lead us into the knowledge of 1. The Divine Unity and Omniscience 2. God's Omnipotence 3. The Divine Love and Goodness 4. God's Eternity 5. His Omnipresence 6. The Divine Freedome and Liberty p. 126. Chap. III. How the Consideration of those restless motions of our Wills after some Supreme and Infinite Good leads us into the knowledge of a Deity pag. 135. Chap. IV. Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes 1. That all Divine productions are the free Effluxes of Omnipotent Love and Goodness The true Notion of God's glory what it is Men very apt to mistake in this point God needs not the Happiness or Misery of his Creatures to make himself glorious by God does most glorifie himself by communicating himself we most glorifie God when we most partake of him and resemble him most pag. 140. Chap. V. A second Deduction 2. That all things are supported and govern'd by an Almighty Wisdome and Goodness An Answer to an Objection made against the Divine Providence from an unequal distribution of things here below Such quarrelling with Providence ariseth from a Paedanticall and Carnall notion of Good and Evil. pag. 144. Chap. VI. A third Deduction 3. That all true Happiness consists in a participation of God arising out of the assimilation and conformity of our Souls to him and That the most reall Misery ariseth out of the Apostasie of Souls from God No enjoyment of God without our being made like to him The Happiness and Misery of Man defin'd and stated with the Original and Foundation of both pag. 147. Chap. VII A fourth Deduction 4. The fourth Deduction acquaints us with the true Notion of the Divine Justice That the proper scope and design of it is to preserve Righteousness to promote encourage true Goodness That it does not primarily intend Punishment but only takes it up as a mean to prevent Transgression True Justice never supplants any that it self may appear glorious in their ruines How Divine Justice is most advanced pag. 151. Chap. VIII The fifth and last Deduction 5. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion The Primitive rules of God's Oeconomy in this world not the sole Results of an Absolute Will but the sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness God could not design to make us Sinfull or Miserable Of the Law of Nature embosom'd in Man's Soul how it obliges man to love and obey God and to express a Godlike spirit and life in this world All Souls the Off-spring of God but Holy Souls manifest themselves to be and are more peculiarly the Children of God pag. 154. Chap. IX An Appendix concerning the Reason of Positive Laws pag. 158. Chap. X. The Conclusion of this Treatise concerning the Existence and Nature of God shewing how our Knowledge of God comes to be so imperfect in this State while we are here in this Terrestriall Body Two waies observed by Plotinus whereby This Body does prejudice the Soul in her Operations That the better Philosophers and more contemplative Jews did not deny the Existence of all kind of Body in the other state What
too in them Men may make an Imitation as well of those things which we call the Internals of Religion as of the Externals There may be a Semblance of inward Joy in God of Love to him and his Precepts of Dependance upon him and a filial Reverence of him which by the contrivance and power of Fancie may be represented in a Masque upon the Stage of the Animal part of a mans Soul Those Christians that fetch all their Religion from pious Books and Discourses hearing of such and such Signs of Grace and Evidences of Salvation and being taught to believe they must get those that so they may go to Heaven may presently begin to set themselves on work and in an Apish imitation cause their Animal Powers and Passions to represent all these and Fancie being well acquainted with all those several Affections in the Soul that at any time express themselves towards Outward things may by the power it hath over the Passions call them all forth in the same Mode and fashion then conjoin with them some Thoughts of God and Divine things which may serve thus put together for a handsome Artifice of Religion wherein these Mechanicks may much applaud themselves I doubt not but there may be such who to gain credit with themselves and that glorious name of being the Children of God though they know nothing more of it but that it is a Title that sounds well would use their best skill to appear such to themselves so qualified and molded as they are told they must be And as many times Credit and Reputation among men may make them pare off the Ruggedness of their Outward man and polish that so to gain their own good opinion and a reputation with their own Consciences which look more inwardly they may also endeavour to make their Inward man look at some times more smooth and comely and it is no hard matter for such Chamaeleon-like Christians to turn even their insides into whatsoever hue and colour shall best please them and then Narcissus-like to fall in love with themselves a strong and nimble Fancie having such command over the Animal spirits that it can send them forth in full troops which way soever it pleaseth and by their aide call forth and raise any kind of Passion it listeth and when it listeth allay it again as the Poets say Aeolus can doe with the Winds As they say of the force of Imagination that Vis Imaginativa signat foetum so Imagination may stamp any Idea that it finds within itself upon the Passions and turn them as it pleases to what Seal it will set upon them and mold them into any likeness and a man looking down and taking a view of the Plot as it is acted upon the Stage of the Animal powers may like and approve it as a true Platform of Religion Thus may they easily deceive themselves and think their Religion to be some Mighty thing within them that runs quite through them and makes all these transformations within them whereas the Rise and Motion of it may be all in the Animal and Sensitive powers of the Soul and a wise observer of it may see whence it comes and whither it goes it being indeed a thing which is from the earth earthy and not like that true Spirit of Regeneration which comes from Heaven and begets a Divine life in the Souls of good men and is not under the command of any such Charms as these are neither will it move according to those Laws and Times and Measures that we please to set to it but we shall find it manifesting its mighty supremacy over the Highest powers of our Souls Whereas we may truly say of all Mechanicks in Religion and our Mimical Christians that they are not so much actuated and informed by their Religion as they inform that the power of their own Imagination deriving that Force to it which bears it up and guides all its motions and operations And therefore they themselves having the power over it can new mold it as themselves please according to any new Pattern which shall like them better then the former they can furnish this domestick Scene of theirs with any kind of matter which the history of other mens religion may afford them and if need be act over all the Experiences of that sect of men to which they most addict themselves so to the life that they may seem to themselves as well experienc'd Christians as any others and so it may be soar so aloft in Self-conceit as if they had already made their nests amongst the stars and had viewed their own mansion in Heaven What was observed by the Stoick concerning the vulgar sort of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as truly be said of this sort of Christians their life is nothing else but a strong Energy of Fancy and Opinion But besides lest their Religion might too grosly discover it self to be nothing else but a piece of Art there may be sometimes such Extraordinary motions stirred up within them which may prevent all their own Thoughts that they may seem to be a true operation of the Divine life when yet all this is nothing else but the Energy of their own Self-love touch'd with some Fleshly apprehensions of Divine things and excited by them There are such things in our Christian Religion that when a Carnal and unhallowed mind takes the Chair and gets the expounding of them may seem very delicious to the fleshly appetites of men Some doctrines and notions of Free-Grace and Justification the magnificent Titles of Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven ever-flowing streams of Joy and Pleasure that blessed Souls shall swim in to all eternity a glorious Paradise in the world to come alway springing up with well-sented and fragrant Beauties a New Jerusalem paved with Gold and bespangled with Stars comprehending in its vast circuit such numberless varieties that a busie curiosity may spend it self about to all eternity I doubt not but that sometimes the most fleshly earthly men that fly their ambition to the pomp of this world may be so ravish'd with the conceits of such things as these that they may seem to be made partakers of the powers of the world to come I doubt not but that they may be as much exalted with them as the Souls of crazed and distracted persons seem to be sometimes when their Fancies play with those quick and nimble Spirits which a distempered frame of Body and unnatural heat in their Heads beget within them Thus may these blazing Comets rise up above the Moon and climbe higher then the Sun which yet because they have no solid consistencie of their own and are of a base and earthly allay will soon vanish and fall down again being only born up by an External force They may seem to themselves to have attain'd higher then those noble Christians that are gently mov'd by the natural force of true Goodness they may seem to
Worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it Our assimilation to God and conformity to him instates us in a firm possession of true Happiness which is nothing else but God himself who is all Being and Blessedness and our dissimilitude to God and Apostasy from him involves us in our own Miserie and sets us at the greatest enmity to what our unsatiable desires most of all crave for which is the enjoyment of True and Satisfying Good Sins are those fiery Snakes which will eternally lash and torment all damned spirits Every mans Hell arises from the bottom of his own Soul as those stinking Mists and tempestuous Exhalations that infest the Earth have their first original from the Earth it self Those streams of fire and brimstone ordained for the torment of all damned spirits are rather the exsudations of their own filthy and corrupt nature then any external thing Hell is not so much induced as educed out of mens filthy Lusts and Passions I will not here dispute what external Appendixes there may be of Heaven or Hell but methinks I no where find a more Graphical description of the true Properties and Operations of them though under other names then in those Characters of the Flesh and Spirit in Galat. 5. ver 19 20 21 22 23. Eternal death is begotten and brought forth out of the wombe of lust and is little else but Sin consummated and in its full growth as S. James intimates chap. 1. Would wicked men dwell a little more at home and descend into the bottome of their own Hearts they should soon find Hell opening her mouth wide upon them and those secret fires of inward fury and displeasure breaking out upon them which might fully inform them of the estate of true Misery as being a short anticipation of it But in this life wicked men for the most part elude their own Misery for a time and seek to avoid the dreadfull sentence of their own Consciences by a tergiversation and flying from themselves into a converse with other things Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere else they would soon find their own home too hot for them But while mens Minds are perpetually rambling all the world over in a pursuit of worldly designes they are unacquainted with the affairs of their own Souls and know not how deeply a Self-converse and reflection upon their own prodigious deformities would pierce their Souls with anguish how vastly would they swell with Fury Rage Horrour Consternation and whatsoever is contrary to that ineffable Light and Love and Peace which is in Heaven in natures fully reconciled and united to true Goodness As true Goodness cannot borrow Beauty from any external thing to recommend it self to the Minds and Affections of Good men seeing it self is the very Idea and true life of all Beauty and Perfection the source of Bliss and Peace to all that partake of her so neither can Sin and Wickedness to an enlightned Soul appear more Ugly loathsome and hatefull in any other shape then its own CHAP. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some External impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peaceful sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual FRom these words Resist the Devil we may take notice of the Warfare of a Christian life of that Active life and valour which Good men express in this world A true Christian spirit is masculine and generous it is no such poor sluggish pusillanimous thing as some men fansie it to be but active and noble We fight not saith the Apostle against flesh and bloud but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places True Religion does not consist in a mere Passive capacity in a sluggish kind of doing nothing that so God himself might doe all but it consists in life power within therefore it is called by the Apostle The spirit of power of love of a sound mind it 's called the law of the spirit of life strongly enabling Good men against the law of Sin and Death True Wisdome as the Wise man hath well stiled it is the unspotted mirrour of the power of God and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty neither can any defiled thing enter into it it goes in and out in the strength of God himself and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly Every thing as it partakes more of God and comes nearer to him so it becomes more active and lively as making the nearer approaches to the Fountain of life and virtue A Good man doth not only then move when there is some powerfull impression and impulse upon him but he hath a Spring of perpetual motion within When God restores men to a new and divine life he doth not make them like so many dead Instruments stringing and fitting them which yet are able to yield no sound of themselves but he puts a living Harmony within them That is but a Mechanical religion which moves no longer then some External weights and Impulses are upon it whether those be I think I may safely say from some Worldly thing or from God himself while he acts upon men from without them and not from within them It is not a Melancholy kind of sitting still and sloathfull waiting that speaks men enlivened by the Spirit and power of God It is not Religion to stifle and smother those Active powers and principles which are within us or to dry up the Fountain of inward life and virtue How say some amongst us That there is no resurrection from the dead no spirit or life within but all our motions in Religion are merely from some assisting Form without Good men do not walk up and down the world merely like Ghosts and Shadows or like dead Bodies assumed by some Spirit which are taken up and laid down again by him at his pleasure But they are indeed living men by a real participation from him who is indeed a quickning Spirit Were our Religion
to those that heard him read a Mathematick Lecture in the Schools for some years may appear hereafter to the Reader if those Lectures can be recovered To conclude He was a plain-hearted both Friend and Christian one in whose Spirit and mouth there was no guile a profitable Companion nothing of vanity and trislingness in him as there was nothing of sowrness Stoicism I can very well remember when I have had private converse with him how pertinently and freely he would speak to any Matter proposed how weighty substantial and clearly expressive of his Sense his private Discourses would be and both for Matter and Language much-what of the same importance value with such Exercises as he studied for and performed in publick I have intimated some things concerning the Author much more might be added but it needs not there being as I before insinuated already drawn a fair and lively Character of him by a worthy Friend of his in the Sermon preached at his Funeral for the publishing whereof and annexing it as now it is to these Discourses he was importun'd by Letters from several hands and prevail'd with wherein if some part of the Character should seem to have in it any thing of Hyperbolism and Strangeness it must seem so to such only who either were unacquainted with him Strangers to his worth or else find it an hard thing not to be Envious and a difficulty to be Humble But those that had a more inward converse with him knew him to be one of those of whom the world was not worthy one of the Excellent ones in the Earth a person truly Exemplary in the temper and constitution of his Spirit and in the well-ordered course of his life a life unius quasi coloris sine actionum dissensione as I remember Seneca doth express it somewhere in his Epistles all of one colour everywhere like it self and Eminent in those things that are worthy of Praise and Imitation And certainly a just Representation of those Excellencies that shined in him as also a faithful Celebration of the like Accomplishments in others is a doing honour to God who is wonderful in his Saints if I may with some apply to this sense that in Psal. 68. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it may be also of great use to others particularly for the awakening obliging them to an earnest endeavouring after those heights and eminent degrees in Grace and Vertue and every worthy Accomplishment which by such Examples they see to be possible attainable through the assistances which the Divine Goodness is ready to afford those Souls which press toward the mark and reach forth to those things that are before The Lives and Examples of men eminently Holy and Useful in their generation such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ever to be valued by us as great Blessings and Favours from Heaven and to be considered as excellent Helps to the Advancement of Religion in the World and therefore there being before us these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Basil speaks in his first Epist. and a little afterwards in the same Ep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such living Pictures moving and active Statues fair Ideas and lively Patterns of what is most praise-worthy lovely and excellent it should be our serious care that we be not through an unworthy and lazy Self-neglect Ingentium Exemplorum parvi imitatores to use Salvian's expression it should be our holy ambition to transcribe their Vertues and Excellencies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make their noblest and best Accomplishments our own by a constant endeavour after the greatest resemblance of them and by being followers of them as they were also of Christ who is the fair and bright Exemplar of all Purity and Holiness the highest and most absolute Pattern of whatsoever is Lovely and Excellent and makes most for the accomplishing and perfecting of Humane Nature Having observed Some things concerning This Edition and the Author of these Discourses I proceed now which was the Last thing intended in this Preface to observe something concerning the several Discourses and Treatises in this Volume And indeed some of these Observations I ought not in justice to the Author to pretermit and all of them may be for the benefit of at least some Readers The First Discourse Concerning the true Way or Method of attaining to Divine Knowledg and an Encrease therein was intended by the Author as a necessary Introduction to the ensuing Treatises and therefore is the shorter yet it contains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use Plutarch's Expression excellent Sense and solid Matter well beaten and compacted and lying close together in a little room many very seasonable Observations for this Age wherein there is so much of fruitless Notionality so little of the true Christian life and practice Shorter yet are the Two next Tracts Of Superstition and Atheism which were also intended by the Author to prepare the way for some of the following Discourses upon which the Author purposed to enlarge his Thoughts Yet as for that Tract Of Superstition some things that are but briefly intimated by the Author therein may receive a further Explication from his other Discourses more especially from the Eighth viz. Of the Shortness and Vanity of a Pharisaick Righteousness or An Account of the false Grounds upon which men are apt vainly to conceit themselves to be Religious And indeed what the Author writes concerning that more refined that more close and subtile Superstition by which he understands the formal and specious Sanctity and vain Religion of Pharisaick Christians who yet would seem to be very abhorrent from Superstition and are apt to call every thing Babylonish and Antichristian that is not of their way I say what he writes concerning This in both these or any other Discourses he would frequently speak of and that with Authority and Power For being possess'd of the inward life and power of true Holiness he had a very strong and clear sense of what he spake and therefore a great and just indignation as against open and gross Irreligion so also against that vain-glorious slight and empty Sanctity of the spiritual Pharisees who would as our Saviour speaks of the old Pharisees Mark 7. make void and very fairly disannul the Commandments of God the weightier things of Religion the indispensable concernments of Christianity while in stead of an inward living Righteousness and entire Obedience they would substitute some external Observances and a mere outward liveless and slight Righteousness and in the room of the New creature made after God set up some Creature of their own made after their own image a Self-framed Righteousness they being strict in some things which have a shew of Wisdom and Sanctity things less necessary and more doubtful and where the H. Scripture hath not placed the Kingdom of God but in the mean time loose and careless in their plain duty toward God and toward
out of slavish Fear void of inward Life and Love and a Complacency in the Law of God of which temper our Author discourses at large For concerning such cheap and little strictnesses as these it may be enquired What doe you more then others Do not even Publicans and Pharisees the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what excellent and extraordinary thing doe you what hard or difficult thing do you perform such as may deserve to be thought a worthy Instance and real Manifestation of the Power of Godliness except such things are to be accounted hard or extraordinary which are common to the real and to the formal Christian and are performable by unregenerate and natural men and are no peculiar Characters of Regeneration No these and the like performances by which such Religionists would set off themselves are but poor and inconsiderable things if compared with the mighty acts and noble atchievements of the more excellent though less ostentatious Christians who through Faith in the Goodness and Power of God have been enabled to doe all things through Christ knowing both how to abound and how to be abased c. Phil. 4. enabled to overcome the World without them and the Love of the World within them enabled to overcome themselves and for a man to rule his own Spirit is a greater instance of power and valour then to take a City as Solomon judgeth Prov. 16. enabled to resist the powers of darkness and to quit themselves like men and good Souldiers of Jesus Christ giving many signal overthrows to those Lusts that war against their Souls and to the mightiest and strongest of them the Sons of Anak and by engaging in the hardest Services of this Spiritual warfare wherein the Pharisaick boasters dare not follow them they shew that there is a Spirit of power in them and that they can doe more then others These are some of the Exploits of strong and healthful Christians and for the encouraging of them in these Conflicts which shall end in glorious Conquests and joyous Triumphs the Author hath in the Tenth and last Discourse suggested what is worthy our Consideration But I must not forget that there remains something to be observed concerning some other Treatises and having been so large in the last Observation which was not unnecessary the world abounding ever having abounded with spiritual Pharisees I shall be shorter in the rest And now to proceed to the next which is of Atheism This Discourse being but Preparatory to the ensuing Tracts is short yet I would mind the Reader that what is more briefly handled here may be supplied and further clear'd out of the Fifth Discourse viz. Of the Existence and Nature of God of which if the former part seem more Speculative Subtile and Metaphysical yet the Latter and Greater part containing several Deductions and Inferences from the Consideration of the Divine Nature and Attributes is less obscure and more Practical as it clearly directs us to the best though not much observed way of glorifying God and being made happy and blessed by a Participation and Resemblance of him as it plainly directs a man to such Apprehensions of God as are apt and powerful to beget in him the Noblest and dearest Love to God the sweetest Delight and the most peaceful Confidence in him One thing more I would observe to the Reader concerning the Discourse Of Atheism and the same I would desire to be observed also concerning the next that large Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul especially of the former part thereof and it is shortly this That the Author in these Treatises pursues his discourse with a particular reflexion on the Dogmata and Notions of Epicurus and his followers especially that great admirer of him Lucretius whose Principles are here particularly examined and refuted These were the men whose Opinions our Author had to combat with He lived not to see Atheism so closely and craftily insinuated nor lived he to see Sadduceism and Epicurism so boldly owned and industriously propagated as they have been of late by some who being heartily desirous That there were no God no Providence no Reward nor Punishment after this life take upon them to deride the Notion of Spirit or Incorporeal Substance the Existence of Separate Souls and the Life to come and by infusing into mens Minds Opinions contrary to these Fundamental Principles of Religion they have done that which manifestly tends to the overthrow of all Religion the destruction of Morality and Vertuous living the debauching of Mankind the consuming and eating out of any good Principle left in the Conscience which doth testifie for God and Goodness and against Sin and Wickedness and to the defacing and expunging of the Law written in mens hearts and so the holy Apostle judges of the Epicurean Notions and discourses a taste of which he gives in that passage 1 Cor. 15. Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die and then ther 's an End of all no other life or state and he expresseth his judgment concerning the evil and dangerousness of these doctrines and their teachers partly in a Verse out of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil communications corrupt good manners and in what he subjoins v. 34. besides many other passages in this Chapter in opposition to the doctrine of the Sadducees and Epicureans and to the same purpose he speaks in 2. Tim. 2. 16 17 18. concerning those that denied the Doctrine of the Resurrection or any Future State and the Life to come The sum and substance of the Apostles judgment concerning these Epicurean principles is plainly this That these Principles properly and powerfully tend to the corrupting of mens Minds and Lives to the advancement of Irreligion and Immorality in the world That they are no benigne Principles to Piety and a Good life 'T is true that some of the more wary and considerate modern Epicureans may express some care to live inoffensively and to keep out of danger and to maintain a reputation in the world as to their converse with others and herein they mind their worldly interests and the advantages of this present life the only life which they have in their eye they may also express a care in avoiding what is prejudicial to health and a long life in this world But all this is short of a true and noble Love of Goodness and if in these men there be any appearance of what is Good and praise-worthy they would have been really better if they had been of other Principles and had believed in their Hearts That there is a Providence a Future state and Life to come and had lived agreeably to the Truths of the Christian Philosophy which do more ennoble and accomplish and every way better a man then the Principles of the Epicurean Sect. But to return We have before observed That our Author in these Two Treatises pursued his design in opposition to the Master-Notions and chief Principles of Epicurus
and Lucretius of old I shall only adde this That if any of this Sect in our daies has done more then revived and repeated those Principles if any such has superadded any thing of any seeming force and moment to the pretensions of the old Epicureans mention'd in these Tracts the Reader may find it particularly spoken to and fully answered by One whom our Author highly esteem'd Mr. Henry More in his late Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul and in another Discourse intituled An Antidote against Atheism and in the Appendix thereunto annexed I pass on to the Discourse of Prophesie which as it cost the Author more pains I believe then any of the other it containing many considerable Enquiries in an Argument not commonly treated of and more then vulgar Observations out of ancient Jewish writers so did it together with the former part of the next Discourse require more labour to prepare it for the Press and the benefit of the Reader then any of the other Tracts by reason of the many Quotations especially the Hebrew ones to be examin'd in the perusing of which there would sometimes occurr a dubious and dark Expression and then I thought it safest to confer with our Hebrew Professor Dr. Cudworth for whom the Author had alwaies a great affection and respect It 's true This Elaborate Treatise is of a more Speculative nature then any of the rest yet is it also Usefull and contains sundry Observations not only of Light and Knowledg but also of Use and Practice For besides that in this Treatise several Passages of Scripture are illustrated out of Jewish Monuments which is no small instance of its Usefulness there are Two Chapters to name no more viz. 4 and 8. the longest in this Treatise which more particularly relate to Practice and might be if well considered available to the bettering of some mens manners The matter of the Fourth Chapter treating of the Difference between the true Prophetical Spirit and Enthusiastical impostures is seasonably usefull and of no small importance Not to mention any latter Experiments and Proofs how powerful such Enthusiastical impostures have been to disquiet and endanger several parts of Christendom it appears by good History and the Event is yet apparent how strangely that Political Enthusiast Mahomet has befool'd a very great part of the world by his pretensions of being inspir'd and taught by the divine Spirit whispering in his ear by his Epileptical fits pretended Visions and Revelations Thus Mahomet's Dove hath as wonderfully prevailed in the World as of old the Roman Eagles although yet which may abate our wondring at this success this imposturous and pretendedly-inspired Doctrine was not propagated and promoted with a Dove-like Spirit but with force of Arms Mahumetanism cut out its way by the Sword the worst instrument for propagating of Religigion to say nothing of the advantages it had from its compliance with Flesh and blood and a Sensual life and from the Ignorance Rudeness and Barbarism of that people to whom that impure Prophet communicated his Alcoran a people capable of any doctrine how absurd and irrational soever Whereas Christianity was at first promoted and made its way in the world by methods more innocent and worthy of the Doctrine of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ that true and great Prophet of whom the Voice from heaven was Hear ye him after whose revelation of the Counsel and Will of God to man there is not to be expected any new and by him unrevealed Doctrine as pertaining to Life and Godliness and necessary to Salvation Neither is the Eighth Chapter treating of the Dispositions preparatory to Prophesy without its Usefulness there being an easie appliableness of what is contain'd therein to such as are pretenders to Prophesying according to the more general importance of that Word and it may be both a just Reproof and a sober Advice to those who being full of themselves swell'd with Self-conceit and pufft up with an opinion of their own Knowledg and Abilities which yet is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 15. a windy and vain knowledg a knowledg falsely so called 1 Tim. 6. and being wise and righteous in their own eyes take upon them to be most talkative dogmatical pert and magisterial Desiring to be Teachers although they understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm and therefore Modesty and Sparingness of speech and Swiftness to hear would better become such then Empty Confidence and Talkativeness and a powring out words without knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for indeed this is the true account of these men and their performances the weakness and insignificancy of which notwithstanding the strong voice and loud noise of the speakers are easily discerned by those who in understanding are men and have put away childish things What I would further intimate concerning this Treatise Of Prophesy is briefly this That though it be one of the largest Treatises in this Volume yet there are some parts and passages in it which I think the Author would have more enlarged and fill'd up had he not hasten'd to that which according to the method design'd by him he calls The Third Great Principle of Religion But of this I have given an account in an Advertisement at the end of this Treatise as also of the adjoining next to it The Discourse Of the Legal and the Evangelical Righteousness c. which Discourse is a much Practical as the former was Speculative Nor was the composure of that Treatise more painfull to the Author then the elaborating of this at least the former half of this wherein the Author has travers'd loca nullius ante Trita solo the more unknown Records and Monuments of Jewish Authors for the better stating the Jewish Notion of the Righteousness of the Law the clearing of which in chap. 2 and 3. as also the settling the Difference between That Righteousness which is of the Law and That which is of Faith between the Old and the New Covenant and the Account of the Nature of Justification and Divine Acceptance c. are all of them of no small use and consequence but together with the Appendix to this Tract made up of certain brief but comprehensive Observations they offer to the Reader what is not unworthy of his serious consideration Of the Eighth Discourse shewing the Vanity of a Pharisaick Righteousness or Godliness falsly so call'd I have spoken before The next Discourse largely treating of the Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion and Holiness shews the Author's Mind to have been not slightly tinctur'd and wash'd over with Religion but rather to have been double-dyed throughly imbued and coloured with that generosum honestum as the Satyrist not unfitly styles it incoctum generoso pectus honesto But the Author's Life and Actions spake no less and indeed there is no language so fully expressive of a man as the language of his Deeds Those that were
men made perfect after he had lent him to this unworthy world for about Five and thirty years A short life his was if we measure it by so many years but if we consider the great Ends of Life and Being in the world which he fulfill'd in his generation his great Accomplishments qualifying him for eminent Service and accompanied with as great a Readinesse to approve himself a good and faithful Servant to his gracious Lord and Master in heaven his life was not to be accounted short but long and we may justly say of him what is said by the Author of the Book of Wisdom concerning Enoch that great Exemplar of holiness and the shortest-liv'd of the Patriarchs before the flood for he lived but 365 years as many years as there are daies in one year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He being consummated in a short time fulfilled a long time For as the same Author doth well express it in some * preceding verses Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time nor that which is measured by number of years But Wisdom is the gray hair unto men and an unspotted life is old age Thus much for the Papers now published There are some other pieces of this Author's both English and Latine which may make another considerable Volume especially if some papers of his in other hands can be retriv'd For my particular I shall wish and endeavour that not the least Fragment of his may be conceal'd which his Friends shall think worthy of publishing and I think all such Fragments being gathered up may fitly be brought together under the Title of Miscellanies If others who have any of his Papers shall please to communicate them I doubt not but that there will be found in some of his Friends a readiness to publish them with all due care and faithfulness Or if they shall think good to doe it themselves and publish them apart I would desire and hope that they would bestow that labour and diligence about the preparing them for publick view and use as may testifie their respect both to the Readers benefit and the honour of the Author's memory And now that this Volume is finished through the good guidance and assistance of God the Father of lights and the Father of mercies whose rich Goodness and Grace in enabling me both to will and to doe and to continue patiently in so doing notwithstanding the many tedious difficulties accompanying such kind of labour I desire humbly to acknowledge now that the severed Papers are brought together in this Collection to their due and proper places as it was said of the Bones scattered in the vally that they came together bone to his bone Ezek. 37. what remains but that the Lord of life he who giveth to all things life and breath be with all earnestness and humility implor'd That he would please to put breath into these otherwise dry Bones that they may live That besides this Paper-life which is all that Man can give to these Writings they may have a living Form and Vital Energy within us That the Practical Truths contained in these Discourses may not be unto us a Dead letter but Spirit and Life That He who teacheth us to profit would prosper these Papers for the attainment of all those good Ends to which they are designed That it would please the God of all grace to remove all darkness and prejudice from the Mind and Heart of any Reader and whatsoever would hinder the fair reception of Truth That the Reader may have an inward Practical and feeling knowledge of the Doctrine which is according to Godliness and live a life worthy of that Knowledge is the Prayer of His Servant in Christ Jesus JOHN WORTHINGTON Cambridge December 22. 1659. In this Epistle pag. vii lin alt for mouth to mouth r. face to face The CONTENTS of the several DISCOURSES in this Volume DISCOURSE I. Of the true WAY or METHOD of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE SEct. I. That Divine things are to be understood rather by a Spiritual Sensation then a Verbal Description or mere Speculation Sin and Wickedness prejudicial to True Knowledge That Purity of Heart and Life as also an Ingenuous Freedome of Judgment are the best Grounds and Preparations for the Entertainment of Truth Page 1. Sect. II. An Objection against the Method of Knowing laid down in the former Section answered That Men generally notwithstanding their Apostasie are furnished with the Radical Principles of True Knowledge Men want not so much Means of knowing what they ought to doe as Wills to doe what they know Practical Knowledge differs from all other Knowledge and excells it pag. 13. Sect. III. Men may be considered in a Fourfold capacity in order to the perception of Divine things That the Best and most excellent Knowledge of Divine things belongs only to the true and sober Christian and that it is but in its infancy while he is in this Earthly Body pag. 17. DISCOURSE II. OF SUPERSTITION THE true Notion of Superstition well express'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an over-timorous and dreadfull apprehension of the Deity A false Opinion of the Deity the true Cause and Rise of Superstition Superstition is most incident to such as Converse not with the Goodness of God or are conscious to themselves of their own unlikeness to him Right apprehensions of God beget in man a Nobleness and Freedome of Soul Superstition though it looks upon God as an angry Deity yet it counts him easily pleas'd with flattering Worship Apprehensions of a Deity and Guilt meeting together are apt to excite Fear Hypocrites to spare their Sins seek out waies to compound with God Servile and Superstitious Fear is encreased by Ignorance of the certain Causes of Terrible Effects in Nature c. as also by frightful Apparitions of Ghosts and Spectres A further Consideration of Superstition as a Composition of Fear and Flattery A fuller Definition of Superstition according to the Sense of the Ancients Superstition doth not alwaies appear in the same Form but passes from one Form to another and sometimes shrouds it self under Forms seemingly Spiritual and more refined pag. 25. DISCOURSE III. OF ATHEISM THat there is a near Affinity between Atheism Superstition That Superstition doth not only prepare the way for Atheism but promotes and strengthens it That Epicurism is but Atheism under a mask A Confutation of Epicurus his Master-notion together with some other pretences and Dogmata of his Sect. The true Knowledge of Nature is advantageous to Religion That Superstition is more tolerable then Atheism That Atheism is both ignoble and uncomfortable What low and unworthy notions the Epicureans had concerning Man's Happiness and what trouble they were put to How to define and Where to place true Happiness A true belief of a Deity supports the Soul with a present Tranquillity and future Hopes Were it not for a Deity the World would be unhabitable p. 41. DISCOURSE IV. OF
converse with them in a Sensual and Unspiritual manner Religion does spiritualize the Creation to Good men it teaches them to look at any Perfections or Excellencies in themselves and others not so much as Theirs or That others but as so many Beams flowing from One and the Same Fountain of Light to love them all in God and God in all the Universal Goodness in a Particular Being A Good man enjoys and delights in whatsoever Good he sees otherwhere as if it were his own he does not fondly love and esteem either himself or others The Divine temper and strain of the antient Philosophy pag. 429. Chap. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence pag. 435. Chap. X. 4. The Excellencie of Religion in regard of its Progress as it is perpetually carrying on the Soul towards Perfection Every Nature hath its proper Centre which it hastens to Sin and Wickedness is within the attractive power of Hell and hastens thither Grace and Holiness is within the Central force of Heaven and moves thither 'T is not the Speculation of Heaven as a thing to come that satisfies the desires of Religious Souls but the reall Possession of it even in this life Men are apt to seek after Assurance of Heaven as a thing to come rather then after Heaven it self and the inward possession of it here How the Assurance of Heaven rises from the growth of Holiness and the powerfull Progress of Religion in our Souls That we are not hastily to believe that we are Christ's or that Christ is in us That the Works which Christ does in holy Souls testify of him and best evidence Christ's spiritual appearance in them pag. 439. Chap. XI 5. The Excellency of Religion in regard of its Term and End viz. Perfect Blessedness How unable we are in this state to comprehend and describe the Full and Perfect state of Happiness and Glory to come The more Godlike a Christian is the better may he understand that State Holiness and Happiness not two distinct things but two several Notions of one and the same thing Heaven cannot so well be defined by any thing without us as by something within us The great nearness and affinity between Sin and Hell The Conclusion of this Treatise containing a serious Exhortation to a diligent minding of Religion with a Discovery of the Vanity of those Pretenses which keep men off from minding Religion pag. 443. DISCOURSE X. OF A CHRISTIANS CONFLICTS with CONQUESTS over SATAN CHap. I. The Introduction Summarily treating of the perpetual Enmity between God the Principle of Good and the Principle of Evil the Devil as also between Whatsoever is from God and that which is from the Devil That Wicked men by destroying what there is from God within them and devesting themselves of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness and transforming themselves into the Diabolical image fit themselves for correspondence and converse with the Devil The Fears and Horrors which infest both the Apostate Spirits and Wicked men The weakness of the Devil's kingdom Christ's success against it pag. 455. Chap. II. The First observable That the Devil is continually busie with us The Devil consider'd under a double notion 1. As an Apostate Spirit which fell from God The great danger of the Devils activity not only when he presents himself in some corporeal shape but when he is unseen and appears not The weakness and folly of those who are afraid of him only when he appears embodyed That the Good Spirit of God is active for the Good of Souls How regardless men are of the gentle motions of the Divine Spirit and how unwatchfull and secure under the Suggestions of the Evil Spirit How we may discover the Devil in his Stratagems and under his several disguises and appearances pag. 458. Chap. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil considered as a Spirit of Apostasie and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not only the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdom and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defie him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life pag. 462. Chap. IV. The Second Observable viz. The Warfare of a Christian life True Religion consists not in a mere passive capacity and sluggish kind of doing nothing nor in a melancholy sitting still or slothfull waiting c. but it consists in inward life and power vigour and activity A discovery of the dulness and erroneousness of that Hypothesis viz. That Good men are wholy Passive and unable at any time to move without some external impetus some impression and impulse from without upon them or That all Motions in Religion are from an External Principle Of the Quality and Nature of the true Spiritual Warfare and of the Manner and Method of it That it is transacted upon the inner Stage of mens Souls and managed without Noise or pompous Observation and without any hindrance or prejudice to the most peacefull sedate and composed temper of a religious Soul This further illustrated from the consideration of the false and pretended Zeal for God and his Kingdome against the Devil which though it be impetuous and makes a great noise and a fair shew in the world is yet both impotent and ineffectual pag. 469. Chap. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory
to all those that resist the Devil This grounded upon 1. The Weakness of the Devil and Sin considered in themselves 2. God's powerfull assisting all faithfull Christians in this warfare The Devil may allure and tempt but cannot prevaile except men consent and yield to his suggestions The Devil's strength lies in mens treachery and falseness to their own Souls Sin is strong because men oppose it weakly The Error of the Manichees about a Principium mali defended by men in their lives and practices Of God's readiness to assist Christians in their Spiritual Conflicts his Compassionate regards and the more special respects of his Providence towards them in such occasions The Conclusion discovering the Evil and Horridness of Magick Diabolical Contracts c. pag. 474. A DISCOURSE Concerning The true WAY or METHOD of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE Psal. 3. 10. The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdome a good Understanding have all they that doe his Commandments John 7. 17. If any man will doe his Will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Clem. Alexandr Strom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A PRAEFATORY DISCOURSE CONCERNING The true Way or Method of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE Section I. That Divine things are to be understood rather by a Spiritual Sensation then a Verbal Description or meer Speculation Sin and Wickedness prejudicial to True Knowledge That Purity of Heart and Life as also an Ingenuous Freedome of Judgment are the best Grounds and Preparations for the Entertainment of Truth Sect. II. An Objection against the Method of Knowing laid down in the former Section answered That Men generally notwithstanding their Apostasie are furnished with the Radical Principles of True Knowledge Men want not so much Means of knowing what they ought to doe as Wills to doe what they know Practical Knowledge differs from all other Knowledge and excells it Sect. III. Men may be consider'd in a Fourfold capacity in order to the perception of Divine things That the Best and most excellent Knowledge of Divine things belongs onely to the true and sober Christian and That it is but in its infancy while he is in this Earthly Body SECT I. IT hath been long since well observed That every Art Science hath some certain Principles upon which the whole Frame and Body of it must depend and he that will fully acquaint himself with the Mysteries thereof must come furnisht with some Praecognita or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may speak in the language of the Stoicks Were I indeed to define Divinity I should rather call it a Divine life then a Divine science it being something rather to be understood by a Spiritual sensation then by any Verbal description as all things of Sense Life are best known by Sentient and Vital faculties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Philosopher hath well observed Every thing is best known by that which bears a just resemblance and analogie with it and therefore the Scripture is wont to set forth a Good life as the Prolepsis and Fundamental principle of Divine Science Wisdome hath built her an house and hewen out her seven pillars But the fear of the Lord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of wisdome the Foundation of the whole fabrick We shall therefore as a Prolegomenon or Preface to what we shall afterward discourse upon the Heads of Divinity speake something of this True Method of Knowing which is not so much by Notions as Actions as Religion it self consists not so much in Words as Things They are not alwaies the best skill'd in Divinity that are the most studied in those Pandects which it is sometimes digested into or that have erected the greatest Monopolies of Art and Science He that is most Practical in Divine things hath the purest and sincerest Knowledge of them and not he that is most Dogmatical Divinity indeed is a true Efflux from the Eternal light which like the Sun-beams does not only enlighten but heat and enliven and therefore our Saviour hath in his Beatitudes connext Purity of heart with the Beatifical Vision And as the Eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be Sun-like and hath the form and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it so neither can the Soul of man behold God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be Godlike hath God formed in it and be made partaker of the Divine Nature And the Apostle S. Paul when he would lay open the right way of attaining to Divine Truth he saith that Knowledge puffeth up but it is Love that edifieth The knowledge of Divinity that appears in Systems and Models is but a poor wan light but the powerful energy of Divine knowledge displaies it self in purified Souls here we shall finde the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the antient Philosophy speaks the land of Truth To seek our Divinity meerly in Books and Writings is to seek the living among the dead we doe but in vain seek God many times in these where his Truth too often is not so much enshrin'd as entomb'd no intrate quaere Deum seek for God within thine own soul he is best discern'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus phraseth it by an Intellectual touch of him we must see with our eyes and hear with our ears and our hands must handle the word of life that I may express it in S. John's words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Soul it self hath its sense as well as the Body and therefore David when he would teach us how to know what the Divine Goodness is calls not for Speculation but Sensation Tast and see how good the Lord is That is not the best truest knowledge of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of the Brain but that which is kindled within us by an heavenly warmth in our Hearts As in the natural Body it is the Heart that sends up good Blood and warm Spirits into the Head whereby it is best enabled to its several functions so that which enables us to know and understand aright in the things of God must be a living principle of Holiness within us When the Tree of Knowledge is not planted by the Tree of Life and sucks not up sap from thence it may be as well fruitful with evil as with good and bring forth bitter fruit as well as sweet If we would indeed have our Knowledge thrive and flourish we must water the tender plants of it with Holiness When Zoroaster's Scholars asked him what they should doe to get winged Souls such as might soar aloft in the bright beams of Divine Truth he bids them bathe themselves in the waters of Life they asking what they were he tells them the four Cardinal Vertues which are the four Rivers of Paradise It is but a thin aiery knowledge that is got by meer Speculation which is usher'd in by Syllogisms and
Truth wrapt up one within another which cannot be discern'd but onely by divine Epoptists We must not think we have then attained to the right knowledge of Truth when we have broke through the outward Shell of words phrases that house it up or when by a Logical Analysis we have found out the dependencies and coherencies of them one with another or when like stout champions of it having well guarded it with the invincible strength of our Demonstration we dare stand out in the face of the world and challenge the field of all those that would pretend to be our Rivalls We have many Grave and Reverend Idolaters that worship Truth onely in the Image of their own Wits that could never adore it so much as they may seem to doe were it any thing else but such a Form of Belief as their own wandring speculations had at last met together in were it not that they find their own image and superscription upon it There is a knowing of the truth as it is in Jesus as it is in a Christ-like nature as it is in that sweet mild humble and loving Spirit of Jesus which spreads itself like a Morning-Sun upon the Soules of good men full of light and life It profits litle to know Christ himself after the flesh but he gives his Spirit to good men that searcheth the deep things of God There is an inward beauty life and loveliness in Divine Truth which cannot be known but onely then when it is digested into life and practice The Greek Philosopher could tell those high-soaring Gnosticks that thought themselves no less then Jovis alites that could as he speaks in the Comedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cried out so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look upon God that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Without Vertue and real Goodness God is but a name a dry and empty Notion The profane sort of men like those old Gentile Greeks may make many ruptures in the walls of God's Temple and break into the holy ground but yet may finde God no more there then they did Divine Truth is better understood as it unfolds itself in the purity of mens hearts and lives then in all those subtil Niceties into which curious Wits may lay it forth And therefore our Saviour who is the great Master of it would not while he was here on earth draw it up into any Systeme or Body nor would his Disciples after him He would not lay it out to us in any Canons or Articles of Belief not being indeed so careful to stock and enrich the World with Opinions and Notions as with true Piety and a Godlike pattern of purity as the best way to thrive in all spiritual understanding His main scope was to promote an Holy life as the best and most compendious way to a right Belief He hangs all true acquaintance with Divinity upon the doing Gods will If any man will doe his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God This is that alone which will make us as S. Peter tells us that we shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour There is an inward sweetness and deliciousness in divine Truth which no sensual minde can tast or rellish this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that natural man that savours not the things of God Corrupt passions and terrene affections are apt of their own nature to disturb all serene thoughts to precipitate our Judgments and warp our Understandings It was a good Maxime of the old Jewish Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Spirit dwells not in terrene and earthly passions Divinity is not so well perceiv'd by a subtile wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by a purified sense as Plotinus phraseth it Neither was the antient Philosophy unacquainted with this Way and Method of attaining to the knowledge of Divine things and therefore Aristotle himself thought a Young man unfit to meddle with the grave precepts of Morality till the heat and violent precipitancy of his youthful affections was cool'd and moderated And it is observed of Pythagoras that he had several waies to try the capacity of his Scholars and to prove the sedateness and Moral temper of their minds before he would entrust them with the sublimer Mysteries of his Philosophy The Platonists were herein so wary and solicitous that they thought the Mindes of men could never be purg'd enough from those earthly dregs of Sense and Passion in which they were so much steep'd before they could be capable of their divine Metaphysicks and therefore they so much solicite a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are wont to phrase it a separation from the Body in all those that would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Socrates speaks that is indeed sincerely understand Divine Truth for that was the scope of their Philosophy This was also intimated by them in their defining Philosophy to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Meditation of Death aiming herein at onely a Moral way of dying by loosening the Soul from the Body and this Sensitive life which they thought was necessary to a right Contemplation of Intelligible things and therefore besides those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the Souls of men were to be separated from sensuality and purged from fleshly filth they devised a further way of Separation more accommodated to the condition of Philosophers which was their Mathemata or Mathematical Contemplations whereby the Souls of men might farther shake off their dependency upon Sense and learn to go as it were alone without the crutch of any Sensible or Material thing to support them and so be a little inur'd being once got up above the Body to converse freely with Immaterial natures without looking down again and falling back into Sense Besides many other waies they had whereby to rise out of this dark Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are wont to call them several steps and ascents out of this miry cave of mortality before they could set any sure footing with their Intellectual part in the land of Light and Immortal Being And thus we should pass from this Topick of our Discourse upon which we have dwelt too long already but that before we quite let it goe I hope we may fairly make this use of it farther besides what we have openly driven at all this while which is To learn not to devote or give up our selves to any private Opinions or Dictates of men in matters of Religion nor too zealously to propugne the Dogmata of any Sect. As we should not like rigid Censurers arraign condemn the Creeds of other men which we comply not with before a full mature understanding of them ripened not onely by the natural sagacity of our own Reasons but by the benign influence of holy and mortified Affection so neither should we over-hastily credere in fidem alienam subscribe to the Symbols and Articles of other men They
we shall adde but this one thing further to clear the Soul's Immortality and it is indeed that which breeds a true sense of it viz. True and reall goodness Our highest speculations of the Soul may beget a sufficient conviction thereof within us but yet it is onely True Goodness and Vertue in the Souls of men that can make them both know and love believe and delight themselves in their own Immortality Though every good man is not so Logically subtile as to be able by fit mediums to demonstrate his own Immortality yet he sees it in a higher light His Soul being purged and enlightned by true Sanctity is more capable of those Divine irradiations whereby it feels it self in conjunction with God and by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks speak the Light of divine goodness mixing it self with the light of its own Reason sees more clearly not onely that it may if it please the supreme Deity of its own nature exist eternally but also that it shall doe so it knows it shall never be deserted of that free Goodness that alwaies embraceth it it knows that Almighty Love which it lives by to be stronger then death and more powerful then the grave it will not suffer those holy ones that are partakers of it to lie in hell or their Souls to see corruption and though worms may devour their flesh and putrefaction enter into those bones that fence it yet it knows that its Redeemer lives and that it shall at last see him with a pure Intellectual eye which will then be clear and bright when all that earthly dust which converse with this mortal body filled it with shall be wiped out It knows that God will never forsake his own life which he hath quickned in it he will never deny those ardent desires of a blissfull fruition of himself which the lively sense of his own Goodness hath excited within it those breathings and gaspings after an eternal participation of him are but the Energy of his own breath within us if he had had any mind to destroy it he would never have shewn it such things as he hath done he would not raise it up to such Mounts of Vision to shew it all the glory of that heavenly Canaan flowing with eternal and unbounded pleasures and then tumble it down again into that deep and darkest Abyss of Death and Non-entity Divine goodness cannot it will not be so cruel to holy souls that are such ambitious suitors for his love The more they contemplate the blissfull Effluxes of his divine love upon themselves the more they find themselves strengthned with an undaunted confidence in him and look not upon themselves in these poor bodily relations and dependences but in their eternal alliances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Arrianus sometimes speaks as the Sons of God who is the Father of Souls Souls that are able to live any where in this spacious Universe and better out of this dark and lonesome Cell of Bodily matter which is alwaies checking and clogging them in their noble motions then in it as knowing that when they leave this Body they shall then be received into everlasting habitations and converse freely and familiarly with that Source of Life and Spirit which they conversed with in this life in a poor disturbed and streightned manner It is indeed nothing else that makes men question the Immortality of their Souls so much as their own base and earthly loves which first makes them wish their Souls were not immortal and then to think they are not which Plotinus hath well observed and accordingly hath soberly pursued this argument I cannot omit a large recital of his Discourse which tends so much to disparage that flat and dull Philosophy which these later Ages have brought forth as also those heavy-spirited Christians that find so little divine life and activity in their own Souls as to imagine them to fall into such a dead sleep as soon as they leave this earthly tabernacle that they cannot be awakened again till that last Trumpet and the voice of an Archangel shall rouse them up Our Authors discourse is this Enn. 4. lib. 7. c. 10. having first premised this Principle That every Divine thing is immortall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us now consider a Soul saith he not such an one as is immerst into the Body having contracted unreasonable Concupiscence and Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to which they were wont to distinguish between the Irascible and Concupiscible faculty and other Passions but such a one as hath cast away these and as little as may be communicates with the Body such a one as this will sufficiently manifest that all Vice is unnaturall to the Soul and something acquired onely from abroad and that the best Wisdome and all other Vertues lodge in a purged Soul as being allyed to it If therefore such a Soul shall reflect upon it self how shall it not appear to it self to be of such a kind of nature as Divine and Eternall Essences are For Wisdome and true Vertue being Divine Effluxes can never enter into any unhallowed and mortall thing it must therefore needs be Divine seeing it is fill'd with a Divine nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by its kindred and consanguinity therewith Whoever therefore amongst us is such a one differs but little in his Soul from Angelicall essences and that little is the present inhabitation in the Body in which he is inferiour to them And if every man were of this raised temper or any considerable number had but such holy Souls there would be no such Infidels as would in any sort disbelieve the Soul's Immortality But now the vulgar sort of men beholding the Souls of the generality so mutilated and deform'd with Vice and Wickedness they cannot think of the Soul as of any Divine and Immortall Being though indeed they ought to judge of things as they are in their own naked essences and not with respect to that which extraessentially adheres to them which is the great prejudice of knowledge Contemplate therefore the Soul of man denuding it of all that which it self is not or let him that does this view his own Soul then he will believe it to be Immortall when he shall behold it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fixt in an Intelligible and pure nature he shall then behold his own Intellect contemplating not any Sensible thing but Eternall things with that which is Eternall that is with it self looking into the Intellectuall world being it self made all Lucid Intellectuall and shining with the Sun-beams of eternall Truth borrowed from the First Good which perpetually rayeth forth his Truth upon all Intellectuall Beings One thus qualified may seem without any arrogance to take up that saying of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farewell all earthly allies I am henceforth no mortall wight but an Immortall Angel ascending up into Divinity and reflecting upon that likeness of it which I find
we have a distinct Notion of the most Perfect Mind and Understanding we own our deficiency therein And as that Idea of Understanding which we have within us points not out to us This or That Particular but something which is neither This nor That but Totall Understanding so neither will any elevation of it serve every way to fit and answer that Idea And therefore when we find that we cannot attain to Science but by a Discursive deduction of one thing from another that our knowledge is confined and is not fully adequate and commensurate to the largest Spheare of Being it not running quite through it nor filling the whole area of it or that our knowledge is Chronical and successive and cannot grasp all things at once but works by intervals and runs out into Division and Multiplicity we know all this is from want of Reason and Understanding and that a Pure and Simple Mind and Intellect is free from all these restraints and imperfections and therefore can be no less then Infinite As this Idea which we have of it in our own Souls will not suffer us to rest in any conception thereof which represents it less then Infinite so neither will it suffer us to conceive of it any otherwise then as One Simple Being and could we multiply Understandings into never so vast a number yet should we be again collecting and knitting them up together in some Universal one So that if we rightly reflect upon our own Minds and the Method of their Energies we shall find them to be so framed as not to admit of any other then One Infinite source of all that Reason and Understanding which themselves partake of in which they live move and have their Being And therefore in the old Metaphysical Theology an Originall and Uncreated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Unity is made the Fountain of all Particularities and Numbers which have their Existence from the Efflux of its Almighty power And that is the next thing which our own Understandings will instruct us in concerning God viz. His Eternall Power For as we find a Will and Power within our selves to execute the Results of our own Reason and Judgment so far as we are not hindred by some more potent Cause so indeed we know it must be a mighty inward strength and force that must enable our Understandings to their proper functions and that Life Energy and Activity can never be separated from a Power of Understanding The more unbodied any thing is the more unbounded also is it in its Effective power Body and Matter being the most sluggish inert and unwieldy thing that may be having no power from it self nor over it self and therefore the Purest Mind must also needs be the most Almighty Life and Spirit and as it comprehends all things and sums them up together in its Infinite knowledge so it must also comprehend them all in its own life and power Besides when we review our own Immortal Souls and their dependency upon some Almighty Mind we know that we neither did nor could produce our selves and withall know that all that Power which lies within the compass of our selves will serve for no other purpose then to apply severall praeexistent things one to another from whence all Generations and Mutations arise which are nothing else but the Events of different applications and complications of Bodies that were existent before and therefore that which produced that Substantiall Life and Mind by which we know our selves must be something much more Mighty then we are and can be no less indeed then Omnipotent and must also be the First architect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all other Beings and the perpetuall Supporter of them We may also know from the same Principles That an Almighty Love every way commensurate to that most Perfect Being eternally rests in it which is as strong as that is Infinite and as full of Life and Vigour as that is of Perfection And because it finds no Beauty nor Loveliness but onely in that and the issues thereof therefore it never does nor can fasten upon any thing else And therefore the Divinity alwaies enjoies it self and its own Infinite perfections seeing it is that Eternall and stable Sun of goodness that neither rises nor sets is neither eclipsed nor can receive any encrease of light and beauty Hence the Divine Love is never attended with those turbulent passions perturbations or wrestlings within it self of Fear Desire Grief Anger or any such like whereby our Love is wont to explicate and unfold its affection towards its Object But as the Divine Love is perpetually most infinitely ardent and potent so it is alwaies calm and serene unchangeable having no such ebbings and flowings no such diversity of stations and retrogradations as that Love hath in us which ariseth from the weakness of our Understandings that doe not present things to us alwaies in the same Orient lustre and beauty neither we nor any other mundane thing all which are in a perpetual flux are alwaies the same Besides though our Love may sometimes transport us and violently rend us from our selves and from all Self-enjoyment yet the more forcible it is by so much the more it will be apt to torment us while it cannot centre it self in that which it so strongly endeavours to attract to it and when it possesseth most yet is it alwaies hungry and craving as Plotinus hath well express'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may alwaies be filling it self but like a leaking vessel it will be alwaies emptying it self again Whereas the Infinite ardour of the Divine Love arising from the unbounded perfection of the Divine Being alwaies rests satisfied within it self and so may rather be defin'd by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is wrapt up and rests in the same Centrall Unity in which it first begins And therefore I think some men of later times have much mistaken the nature of the Divine Love in imagining that Love is to be attributed to God as all other Passions are rather secundùm effectum then affectum whereas S. John who was well acquainted with this noble Spirit of Love when he defin'd God by it and calls him LOVE meant not to signifie a bare nothing known by some Effects but that which was infinitely such as it seems to be And we might well spare our labour when we so industriously endeavour to find something in God that might produce the Effects of some other Passions in us which look rather like the Brats of Hell and Darkness then the lovely offspring of Heaven When we reflect upon all this which signifies some Perfect Essence as a Mind Wisdome Understanding Omnipotency Goodness and the like we can find no such thing as Time or Place or any Corporeall or Finite properties which arise indeed not ex plenitudine but ex inopia entitatis we may also know God to be Eternall and
we may go about them and tell how in a general way to define and distinguish them Happiness is nothing else as we usually describe it to our selves but the Enjoyment of some Chief good and therefore the Deity is so boundlesly Happy because it is every way one with its own Immense perfection and every thing so much the more feelingly lives upon Happiness by how much the more it comes to partake of God and to be made like to him And therefore the Platonists well defin'd it to consist in idea Boni And as it is impossible to enjoy Happiness without a fruition of God so it is impossible to enjoy him without an assimilation and conformity of our Natures to him in a way of true goodness and Godlike perfection It is a common Maxim of Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not lawfull for any impure nature to touch pure Divinity For we cannot enjoy God by any Externall conjunction with him Divine fruition is not by a meer kind of Apposition or Contiguity of our Natures with the Divine but it is an Internall Union whereby a Divine Spirit informing our Souls derives the strength of a Divine life through them and as this is more strong and active so is Happiness it self more Energeticall within us It must be some Divine Efflux running quite through our Souls awakening and exalting all the vitall powers of them into an active Sympathy with some Absolute good that renders us compleatly blessed It is not to sit gazing upon a Deity by some thin speculations but it is an inward feeling and sensation of this Mighty Goodness displaying it self within us melting our fierce and furious natures that would fain be something in contradiction to God into an Universall complyance with it self and wrapping up our amorous Minds wholly into it self whereby God comes to be all in all to us And therefore so long as our Wills and Affections endeavour to fix upon any thing but God true Goodness we doe but indeed anxiously endeavour to wring Happiness out of something that will yeeld no more then a flinty Rock to all our pressing and forcing of it The more we endeavour to force out our Affections to stay and rest themselves upon any Finite thing the more violently will they recoil back again upon us It is onely a true sense and relish of God that can tame and master that rage of our insatiable and restless desires which is still forcing us out of our selves to seek some Perfect Good that which from a latent sense of our own Souls we feel our selves to want The Foundation of Heaven and Hell is laid in mens own Souls in an ardent and vehement appetite after Happiness which can neither attain to it nor miss finally of it and of all appearances of it without a quick and piercing sense Our Souls are not like so many lumps of dead and sensless Matter to a true living Happiness they are not like these dull clods of Earth which sent not the good or ill savour of those Plants that grow upon them Gain and Loss are very sensibly felt by greedy minds The Soul of man was made with such a large capacity as it is that so it might be better fitted to entertain a full and liberall Happiness that the Divine Love and Goodness might more freely spread it self in it and unite it to it self And accordingly when it misseth of God it must feel so much the more the fury and pangs of Misery and find a severe Nemesis arising out of its guilty conscience which like a fiery Scorpion will fasten its stings within it And thus as Heaven Love Joy Peace Serenity and all that which Happiness is buds and blossoms out of holy and God-like spirits so also Hell and Misery will perpetually spring out of impure Minds distracted with Envy Malice Ambition Self-will or any inordinate loves to any particular thing This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Plato speaks of that fatal Law that is first made in Heaven's Consistory That Purity and Holiness shall be happy and all Vice and Sin miserable Holiness of Mind will be more and more attracting God to it self as all Vice will lapse and slide more and more from him The more pure our Souls are and abstracted from all mundane things the more sincerely will they endeavour the nearest union that may be with God the more they will pant and breathe after him alone leaving the chase of any other delight There is such a noble and free-born spirit in true Goodness seated in Immortall natures as will not be satisfied meerly with Innocency nor rest it self in this mix'd Bodily state though it could converse with Bodily things without sinking to a vitious love of them but would alwaies be returning to a more intimate union with that Being from whence it came and which will be drawing it more and more to it self and therefore it seems very reasonable to believe that if Adam had continued in a state of Innocency he should have been raised by God to a greater fruition of him and his nature should have been elevated to a more transcendent condition And if there was any Covenant made with Adam in Paradise I think we cannot understand it in any other sense but this the Scripture speaks not of any other terms between God and Man And this Law of life which we have spoken of is Eternall and Immutable nor does the Dispensation of Grace by Christ Jesus at all abrogate or disannull but rather enforce it for so we find that the Law of Christ that which he gave out to all his Disciples was this Law of perfection that carries true Happiness along in the Sense of it which as the great Prince of Souls he dispenseth by his Eternall Spirit in a vitall way unto the Minds of men CHAP. VII A Fourth Deduction 4. The Fourth Deduction acquaints us with the true Notion of the Divine Justice That the proper scope and design of it is to preserve Righteousness to promote and encourage true Goodness That it does not primarily intend Punishment but onely takes it up as a mean to prevent Transgression True Justice never supplants any that it self may appear more glorious in their ruines How Divine Justice is most advanced IN the fourth place we may further collect How rightly to state the Notion of the Divine Justice the scope whereof is nothing else but to assert and establish Eternall Law and Right and to preserve the integrity thereof it is no design of Vengeance which though God takes on wicked men yet he delights not in it The Divine Justice first prescribes that which is most conformable to the Divine Nature and mainly pursues the conservation of Righteousness We would not think him a good Ruler that should give out Laws to ensnare his Subjects with an even indifferency of Mind whether his Laws be kept or Punishments suffered but such a one who would make the best security for
Right and Equity by wholsome Laws and annexing Punishments as a mean to prevent transgression and not to manifest Severity The proper scope of Justice seems to be nothing else but the preserving and maintaining of that which is Just and Right the scope of that Justice which is in any Righteous Law is properly to provide for a righteous execution of that which is just and fit to be without intending punishment for to intend that properly and directly might rather seem Cruelty then Justice and therefore Justice takes not up Punishment but onely for a security of performance of Righteous Laws viz. either for the amendment of the person transgressing or a due example to others to keep them off from transgression For I would here suppose a Good and Righteous man who in some desolate place of the World should have the command of a 100 more and himself be Supreme under no command He prescribes Laws to this company makes it death for any one to take away another's life But now one proves a Murtherer kills one of his fellows afterwards repents heartily and is like to prove usefull among the rest of his fellows they all are so heartily affected one to another that there is no danger upon sparing this Penitent's life that any one of them should be encouraged to commit the like evil The Case being thus stated it will not seem difficult to conclude that the Justice of this Righteous and Good Commander would spare this poor Penitent for his Justice would have preserved that life which is lost and seeing there is nothing further that it can obtain in taking away this it will save this which may be saved for it affects not any blood and when it destroies it is out of necessity to take away a destructive person and to give example which in the Case stated falls not out Again Justice is the Justice of Goodness and so cannot delight to punish it aimes at nothing more then the maintaining and promoting the Laws of Goodness and hath alwaies some good end before it and therefore would never punish except some further good were in view True Justice never supplants any that it self might appear more glorious in their ruines for this would be to make Justice love something better then Righteousness and to advance and magnifie it self in something which is not it self but rather an aberration from it self and therefore God himself so earnestly contends with the Jews about the Equity of his own waies with frequent asseverations that his Justice is thirsty after no man's blood but rather that Sinners would repent turn from their evil waies and live And then Justice is most advanced when the contents of it are fulfill'd and though it does not and will not acquit the guilty without Repentance yet the design of it is to encourage Innocency and promote true Goodness CHAP. VIII The Fifth and last Deduction 5. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion The Primitive rules of God's Oeconomy in this world not the sole Results of an Absolute Will but the sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness God could not design to make us Sinfull or Miserable Of the Law of Nature embosom'd in Man's Soul how it obliges man to love and obey God and to express a Godlike spirit and life in this world All Souls the Off-spring of God but Holy Souls manifest themselves to be and are more peculiarly the Children of God THE former Deduction leads me to another a-kin to it which shall be my last and it is that which Tully intimates in his De legibus viz. That seeing there is such an Entercourse and Society as it were between God and Men therefore there is also some Law between them which is the Bond of all Communion God himself from whom all Law takes its rise and emanation is not Exlex and without all Law nor in a sober sense above it Neither are the Primitive rules of his Oeconomy in this world the sole Results of an Absolute will but the Sacred Decrees of Reason and Goodness I cannot think God to be so unbounded in his Legislative power that he can make any thing Law both for his own Dispensations and our Observance that we may sometime imagine We cannot say indeed that God was absolutely determin'd from some Law within himself to make us but I think we may safely say when he had once determin'd to make us he could neither make us sinfull seeing he had no Idea nor shadow of Evil within himself nor lap us those dreadfull fates within our Natures or set them over us that might arcanâ inspiratione as some are pleas'd to phrase it secretly work our ruine and silently carry us on making use of our own naturall infirmity to eternall misery Neither could he design to make his creatures miserable that so he might shew himself Just. These are rather the by-waies of Cruell and Ambitious men that seek their own advantage in the mischiefs of other men and contrive their own Rise by their Ruines this is not Divine Justice but the Cruelty of degenerated men But as the Divinity could propound nothing to it self in the making of the World but the Communication of its own Love and Goodness so it can never swerve from the same Scope and End in the dispensation of it self to it Neither did God so boundlesly enlarge the appetite of Souls after some All-sufficient Good that so they might be the more unspeakably tortur'd in the missing of it but that they might more certainly return to the Originall of their Beings And such busie-working Essences as the Souls of men are could neither be made as dull and sensless of true Happiness as Stocks and Stones are neither could they contain the whole summe and perfection of it within themselves therefore they must also be inform'd with such Principles as might conduct them back again to Him from whom they first came God does not make Creatures for the meer sport of his Almighty arm to raise and ruine and toss up and down at meer pleasure No that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good pleasure of that Will that made them is the same still it changes not though we may change and make our selves uncapable of partaking the blissfull fruits and effects of it And so we come to consider that Law embosom'd in the Souls of men which ties them again to their Creatour and this is called The Law of Nature which indeed is nothing else but a Paraphrase or Comment upon the Nature of God as it copies forth it self in the Soul of Man Because God is the First Mind and the First Good propagating an Imitation of himself in such Immortall Natures as the Souls of Men are therefore ought the Soul to renounce all mortall and mundane things and preserve its Affections chast and pure for God himself
that Maxime we now speak of ascribed to R. Jochanan in Massec Berac c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Prophets prophesied to the daies of the Messiah but as for the world to come Eye hath not seen it So they constantly expound that passage in Esay 64. 4. Since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the Eare neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And according to this Aphorisme our Saviour seems to speak when he saies All the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John Mat. 11. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They prophesied to or for that Dispensation which was to begin with John who lived in the time of the twilight as it were between the Law and the Gospel They prophesied of those things which should be accomplished within the period of Gospel-Dispensation which was usher'd in by John As for the state of Blessedness in Heaven it is major Mente humanâ much more is it major Phantasia But of this in part heretofore An Advertisement THE Reader may remember That our Author in the beginning of his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul propounded these Three great Principles of Religion to be discoursed of 1. The Immortalitie of the Soul 2. The Existence and Nature of God 3. The Communication of God to Mankind through Christ. And having spoken largely to the Two former Principles of Natural Theology he thought it fit as a Preparation to the Third which imports the Revelation of the Gospel to speak something concerning Prophesie the way whereby Revealed Truth is dispensed to us Of this he intended to treat but a little they are his words in the beginning of the Treatise of Prophesie and then pass on to the Third and Last part viz. Those Principles of Revealed Truth which tend most of all to advance and cherish true and real Piety But in his discoursing of Prophesie so many considerable Enquiries offered themselves to his thoughts that by that time he had finished this Discourse designed at first only as a Preface his Office of being Dean and Catechist in the Colledge did expire Thus far had the Author proceeded in that year of his Office and it was not long after that Bodily distempers and weaknesses began more violently to seize upon him which the Summer following put a Period to his life here a life so every way beneficial to those who had the happiness to converse with him Sic multis ille bonis flebilis occidit Thus he who designed to speak of God's Communication of Himself to Mankind through Christ was taken up by God into a more inward and immediate participation of Himself in Blessedness Had he liv'd and had health to have finish'd the remaining part of his designed Method the Reader may easily conceive what a Valuable piece that Discourse would have been Yet that he may not altogether want the Authors labours upon such an Argument I thought good in the next place to adjoine a Discourse of the like importance and nature delivered heretofore by the Author in some Chappel-Exercises from which I shall not detain the Reader by any more of Preface A DISCOURSE Treating Of LEGAL Righteousness EVANGELICAL Righteousness Or The Righteousness of FAITH The Difference between the LAW and the GOSPEL OLD and NEW COVENANT JUSTIFICATION and DIVINE ACCEPTANCE The CONVEIGHANCE of the EVANGELICAL Righteousness to us by FAITH Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven Matth. 5. 20. Having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof 2 Tim. 3. 5. For the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did Heb. 7. 19. B. Macarius in Homil. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Discourse Of LEGAL Righteousness and of The Righteousness of FAITH c. Rom. 9. 31 32. But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the Law CHAP. I. The Introduction shewing What it is to have a right Knowledge of Divine Truth and What it is that is either Availeable or Prejudicial to the true Christian Knowledge and Life THE Doctrine of Christian Religion propounded to us by our Saviour and his Apostles is set forth with so much simplicity and yet with so much repugnancy to that degenerate Genius and Spirit that rules in the hearts and lives of Men that we may truly say of it it is both the Easiest and the Hardest thing it is a Revelation wrapt up in a Complication of mysteries like that Book of the Apocalypse which both unfolds and hides those great Arcana that it treats of or as Plato sometimes chose so to explain the secrets of his Metaphysical or Theological Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he that read might not be able to understand except he were a Son of Wisdome and had been train'd up in the knowledge of it The Principles of True Religion are all in themselves plain and easie deliver'd in the most familiar way so that he that runs may read them they are all so clear and perspicuous that they need no Key of Analytical demonstration to unlock them the Scripture being written doctis pariter indoctis and yet it is Wisdome in a mystery which the Princes of this world understand not a sealed Book which the greatest Sophies may be most unacquainted with it is like that Pillar of Fire and of a Cloud that parted between the Israelites and the Egyptians giving a clear and comfortable light to all those that are under the manuduction and guidance thereof but being full of darkness and obscurity to those that rebell against it Divine Truth is not to be discerned so much in a mans Brain as in his Heart Divine wisdome is a Tree of life to them that find her and it is only Life that can feelingly converse with Life All the thin Speculations and subtilest Discourses of Philosophy cannot so well unfold or define any Sensible Object nor tell any one so well what it is as his own naked Sense will doe There is a Divine and Spiritual sense which only is able to converse internally with the life and soul of Divine Truth as mixing and uniting it self with it while vulgar Minds behold only the body and out-side of it Though in it self it be most intelligible and such that mans Mind may most easily apprehend yet there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrew writers call that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incrustamentum immunditiei upon all corrupt Minds which hinders the lively taste and relish of it This is that thick and palpable Darkness which cannot comprehend that divine Light that shines in the Minds and Understandings of all men but makes them to deny that very Truth which they seem to
entertain The World through wisdome as the Apostle speaks knew not God Those great Disputers of this world were too full of nice and empty Speculations to know him who is only to be discerned by a pacate humble and self-denying mind their Curiosity served rather to dazzle their Eyes then to enlighten them while they rather proudly braved themselves in their knowledge of the Deity then humbly subjected their own Souls to a complyance with it making the Divinity nothing else but as it were a flattering Glass that might reflect and set off to them the beauty of their own Wit and Parts the better and while they seemed to converse with God himself they rather amorously courted their own Image in him and fell into love with their own Shape Therefore the best acquaintance with Religion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a knowledge taught by God it is a Light that descends from Heaven which is only able to guide and conduct the souls of men to Heaven from whence it comes The Jewish Doctors use to put it among the fundamental Articles of their Religion That their Law was from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am sure we may much rather reckon it amongst the Principles of our Christian Religion in an higher way That it is an Influx from God upon the Minds of good men And this is the great designe and plot of the Gospel to open and unfold to us the true way of recourse to God a Contrivance for the uniting the Souls of men to him and the deriving a participation of God to men to bring in Everlasting righteousness and to establish the true Tabernacle of God in the Spirits of men which was done in a Typical and Emblematical way under the Law And herein consists the main preeminence which the Gospel hath above the Law in that it so clearly unfolds the Way and Method of Uniting humane nature to Divinity which the Apostle seems mainly to aim at in these words But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness c. CHAP. II. An Enquiry into that Jewish Notion of a Legal Righteousness which is opposed by S. Paul That their notion of it was such as this viz. That the Law externally dispensed to them though it were as a Dead letter merely without them and conjoined with the power of their own Free-will was sufficient to procure them Acceptance with God and to acquire Merit enough to purchase Eternal Life Perfection and Happiness That this their Notion had these two Grounds First An Opinion of their own Self-sufficiency and that their Free-will was so absolute and perfect as that they needed not that God should doe any thing for them but only furnish them with some Law to exercise this Innate power about That they asserted such a Freedom of Will as might be to them a Foundation of Merit FOR the unfolding whereof we shall endeavour to search out First What the Jewish Notion of a Legal righteousness was which the Apostle here condemns Secondly What that Evangelical righteousness or Righteousness of Faith is which he endeavours to establish in the room of it For the First That which the Apostle here blames the Jews for seems to be indeed nothing else but an Epitome or Compendium of all that which he otherwhere disputes against them for which is not merely and barely concerning the Formal notion of Justification as some may think viz. Whether the Formal notion of it respects only Faith or Works in the Person justified though there may be a respect to that also it is not merely a subtile School-controversie which he seems to handle but it is of a greater latitude It is indeed concerning the whole Way of Life and Happiness and the proper scope of restoring Mankind to Perfection and Union with the Deity which the Jews expected by virtue of that Systeme and Pandect of Laws which were delivered upon Mount Sinai augmented and enlarged by the Gemara of their own Traditions Which that we may the better understand perhaps it may not be amiss a little to traverse the Writings of their most approved ancient Authors that so finding out their constant received opinions concerning their Law and the Works thereof we may the better and more fully understand what S. Paul and the other Apostles aim at in their disputes against them The Jewish notion generally of the Law is this That in that Model of life contained in that Body of Laws distinguished ordinarily into Moral Judicial Ceremonial was comprised the whole Method of raising Man to his perfection and that they having only this Book of Laws without them to converse with needed nothing else to procure Eternal life Perfection and Happiness as if this had been the only means God had for the saving of Men and making them happy to set before them in an External way a Volume of Laws Statutes and Ordinances and so to leave them to work out and purchase to themselves Eternal life in the observance of them Now this General notion of theirs we shall unfold in 2 Particulars First as a Foundation of all the rest They took up this as an Hypothesis or common Principle That Mankind had such an absolute and perfect Free-will and such a sufficient power from within himself to determine himself to Vertue and Goodness as that he only needed some Law as the Matter or Object to exercise this Innate power about and therefore needed not that God should doe any thing more for him then merely to acquaint him with his Divine will and pleasure And for this we have Maimonides speaking very fully and magisterially That this was one of their Radices fidei or Articles of their Faith and one main Foundation upon which the Law stood His words are these in Halacah teshubah or Treatise of Repentance Chap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Power of Free-will is given to every man to determine himself if he will to that which is good and to be good or to determine himself to that which is evil and to be wicked if he will Both are in his power according to what is written in the Law Behold Man is become as one of us to know good and evil that is to say Behold this sort of Creature Man is alone and there is not a Second like to Man in this viz. That Man from himself by his own proper knowledge and power knowes good and evil and does what pleaseth him in an uncontrollable way so as none can hinder him as to the doing of either good or evil And a little after he thus interprets those words in the Lamentations of the repenting Church ch 3. 40. Let us search and try our waies and turn unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seeing that we who are endued with the power of Free-will have most wittingly and freely committed all our transgressions it is meet and becoming that we should convert our selves by repentance and forsake all our iniquities forasmuch as this
of sinners insatiably greedy after their prey never satisfied till they have devoured the Souls of men Lest we should by such dreadful apprehensions be driven from God we are told of the Bloud of sprinkling that speaks better things for us of a mighty Favourite solliciting our Cause with perpetual intercessions in the Court of heaven of a new and living way to the Throne of grace and to the Holy of holies which our Saviour hath consecrated through his flesh We are told of a great and mighty Saviour able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him We heare of the most compassionate and tender Promises that may be from the Truth it self that Whosoever comes to him he will in no wise cast out that They that believe on him out of them should flow streams of living water We hear of the most gracious invitations that Heaven can make to all weary and heavy-laden sinners to come to Christ that they may find rest The great Secrets of Heaven and the Arcana of Divine Counsells are revealed whereby we are acquainted that Glory to God in the highest Peace on earth Good will towards men are sweetly joined together in Heavens harmony and happily combin'd together in the composure of it's Ditties That the Glory of the Deity and Salvation of men are not allaied by their union one with another but both exalted together in the most transcendent way that Divine love and bounty are the supreme rulers in Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no such thing as sowre Despight and Envy lodged in the bosome of that ever-blessed Being above whose name is LOVE and all whose Dispensations to the Sons of men are but the dispreadings and distended radiations of his Love as freely flowing forth from it through the whole orbe and sphear of its creation as the bright light from the Sun in the firmament of whose benign influences we are then only deprived when we hide and withdraw our selves from them We are taught that the mild and gentle breathings of the Divine Spirit are moving up and down in the World to produce life and to revive and quicken the Souls of men into a feeling sense of a blessed Immortality This is that mighty Spirit that will if we comply with it teach us all things even the hidden things of God mortifie all the lusts of rebellious Flesh and seal us up to the day of redemption We are taught that with all holy boldness we may in all places lift up holy hands to God without wrath or doubting without any sowre thoughts of God or fretfull jealousies or harsh surmises We can never distrust enough in our selves nor ever trust too much in God This is the great Plerophory and that full Confidence which the Gospel every where seems to promote and should I run through all the Arguments and Solicitations that are there laid down to provoke us to an entertainment hereof I should then run quite through it from one end to another it containing almost nothing else in the whole Complex and Body of it but strong and forcible Motives to all Ingenuous addresses to God and the most effectual Encouragement that may be to all chearfull dependance on him and confident expectation of all assistance from him to carry on our poor endeavours to the atchievment of Blessedness and that in the most plain and simple way that may be sine fraude fuco without any double mind or mental reservation Heaven is not acquainted so feelingly with our wicked arts and devices But it is very strange that where God writes Life so plainly in fair Capital letters we are so often apt to read Death that when he tells us over and over that Hell destruction arise from our selves that they are the workmanship of our own hands we will needs understand their Pedegree to be from Heaven and that they were conceived in the Womb of Life and Blessedness No but the Gospel tells us we are not come to Mounts of burning nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest c. Hebr. 12. v. 18. Certainly a lively Faith in this Love of God and a sober converse with his Goodness by a cordial entertainment and through perswasion of it would warm and chafe our benummed Minds and thaw our Hearts frozen with Self-love it would make us melt and dissolve out of all Self-consistencie and by a free and noble Sympathie with the Divine love to yield up our selves to it and dilate and spread our selves more fully in it This would banish away all Atheisme and ireful slavish Superstition it would cast down every high thought and proud imagination that swells within us and exalts it self against this soveraign Deity it would free us from all those poor sorry pinching and particular Loves that here inthrall the Souls of men to Vanity and Baseness it would lead us into the true liberty of the sons of God filling our Hearts once enlarged with the sense of it with a more generous and universal love as unlimited and unbounded as true Goodness it self is Thus Moses-like conversing with God in the Mount and there beholding his glory shining thus out upon us in the face of Christ we should be deriving a Copy of that Eternal beauty upon our own Souls and our thirstie and hungry spirits would be perpetually sucking in a true participation and image of his glory A true divine Love would wing our Souls and make them take their flight swiftly towards Heaven and Immortality Could we once be throughly possess'd and mastered with a full confidence of the Divine love and God's readiness to assist such feeble languishing creatures as we are in our assays after Heaven and Blessedness we should then finding our selves borne up by an Eternal and Almighty strength dare to adventure courageously and confidently upon the highest designes of Happiness to assail the kingdome of heaven with a holy gallantry and violence to pursue a course of well-doing without weariness knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord and that we shall receive our Reward if we faint not We should work out our salvation in the most industrious manner trusting in God as one ready to instill strength and power into all the vital faculties of our Souls We should press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that we may apprehend that for which also we are apprehended of Christ Jesus If we suffer not our selves to be robb'd of this Confidence and Hope in God as ready to accomplish the desires of those that seek after him we may then walk on strongly in the way to Heaven and not be weary we may run and not faint And the more the Souls of men grow in this blissfull perswasion the more they shall mount up like Eagles into a clear Heaven finding themselvs rising higher and higher above all those filthy mists those clouds and tempests of a slavish Fear
Despair Fretfulness against God pale Jealousies wrathfull and embittered Thoughts of him or any struglings or contests to get from within the verge of his Power and Omnisciency which would mantle up their Souls in black and horrid Night I mean not all this while by this holy Boldness and Confidence and Presence of Mind in a Believer's converse with the Deitie that high pitch of Assurance that wafts the Souls of good men over the Stygian lake of Death and brings them to the borders of life that here puts them into an actual possession of Bliss and reestates and reestablishes them in Paradise No That more general acquaintance which we may have with God's Philanthropy and Bounty ready to relieve with the bowells of his tender compassions all those starving Souls that call upon him for surely he will never doe less for fainting and drooping Souls then he doth for the young Ravens that cry unto him that converse which we are provoked by the Gospel to maintain with God's unconfined love if we understand it aright will awaken us out of our drowsie Lethargy and make us aske of him the way to Sion with our faces thitherward This will be digging up fresh fountains for us while we goe through the valley of Baca whereby refreshing our weary Souls we shall goe on from strength to strength until we see the face of our loving and ever-to-be-loved God in Sion And so I come to the next Particular wherein we shall further unfold how this God-like righteousness we have spoken of is conveighed to us by Faith and that is this A true Gospel-faith is no lazie or languid thing but a strong ardent breathing for and thirsting after divine Grace and Righteousness it doth not only pursue an ambitious project of raising the Soul immaturely to the condition of a darling Favourite with Heaven while it is unripe for it by procuring a mere empty Pardon of sin it desires not only to stand upon clear terms with Heaven by procuring the crossing of all the Debt-books of our sins there but it rather pursues after an Internal participation of the Divine nature We often hear of a Saving Faith and that where it is is not content to wait for Salvation till the world to come it is not patient of being an Expectant in a Probationership for it untill this Earthly body resignes up all it's worldly interest that so the Soul might then come into its room No but it is here perpetually gasping after it and effecting of it in a way of serious Mortification and Self-denial it enlarges and dilates it self as much as may be according to the vast dimensions of the Divine love that it may comprehend the height and depth the length and breadth thereof and fill the Soul where it is seated with all the fullness of God it breeds a strong and unsatiable appetite where it comes after true Goodness Were I to describe it I should doe it no otherwise then in the language of the Apostle It is that whereby we live in Christ and whereby he lives in us or in the dialect of our Saviour himself Something so powerfully sucking in the precious influences of the Divine Spirit that the Soul where it is is continually flowing with living waters issuing out of it self A truely-believing Soul by an ingenuous affiance in God and an eager thirst after him is alwaies sucking from the full breasts of the Divine love thence it will not part for there and there only is its life and nourishment it starves and faints away with grief and hunger whensoever it is pull'd away from thence it is perpetually hanging upon the arms of Immortal Goodness for there it finds its great strength lies and as much as may be armes it self with the mighty Power of God by which it goes forth like a Gyant refreshed with wine to run that race of Grace Holiness that leads to the true Elysium of Glory and that heavenly Canaan which is above And whensoever it finds it self enfeebled in its difficult Conflict with those fierce and furious Corruptions those tall sons of Anak which arising from our terrene and sensual affections doe here encounter it in the Wilderness of this world then turning it self to God and putting it self under the conduct of the Angel of his presence it finds it self presently out of weakness to become strong enabled from above to put to flight those mighty armies of the aliens True Faith if you would know its rise and pedegree it is begotten of the Divine bounty and fulness manifesting it self to the Spirits of men and it is conceived and brought forth by a deep and humble sense of Self-indigency and Poverty Faith arises out of Self-examination seating and placing it self in view of the Divine plenitude and Allsufficiency and thus that I may borrow those words of S. Paul we received the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in him The more this Sensual Brutish and Self-Central life thrives and prospers the more divine Faith languisheth and the more that decays and all Self-feeling Self-love and Self-sufficiency pine away the more is true Faith fed and nourished it grows more vigorous and as Carnal life wasts and consumes so the more does Faith suck in a true divine and spiritual life from the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath life in himself and freely bestowes it to all those that heartily seek for it When the Divinity united it self to Humane nature in the person of our Saviour he then gave mankind a pledge and earnest of what he would further doe therein in assuring of it into as near a conjunction as might be with Himself and in dispensing and communicating himself to Man in a way as far correspondent and agreeable as might be to that first Copy And therefore we are told of Christ being formed in us and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us of our being made conformable to him of having fellowship with him of being as he was in this world of living in him and his living in us of dying and rising again and ascending with him into Heaven and the like because indeed the same Spirit that dwelt in him derives it self in its mighty Virtue and Energy through all believing Souls shaping them more and more into a just resemblance and conformitie to him as the first Copy Pattern Whence it is that we have so many waies of unfolding the Union between Christ and all Believers set forth in the Gospel And all this is done for us by degrees through the efficacy of the Eternal spirit when by a true Faith we deny our selves and our own Wills submit our seves in a deep sense of our own folly and weakness to his Wisdome and Power comply with his Will and by a holy affiance in him subordinate our selves to his pleasure for these are the Vital acts of a Gospel-Faith And according to this which hath been said I
suppose we may fairly gloss upon S. Paul's Discourses which so much prefer Faith above Works We must not think in a Gyant-like pride to scale the walls of Heaven by our own Works and by force thereof to take the strong Fort of Blessedness and wrest the Crown of Glory out of God's hands whether he will or no. We must not think to commence a suit in Heaven for Happiness upon such a poor and weak plea as our own External compliance with the Old Law is We must not think to deal with God in the Method of Commutative Justice and to challenge Eternal life as the just Reward of our great Merits and the hire due to us for our labour and toil we have took in God's Vineyard No God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble it must be an humble and Self-denying address of a Soul dissolved into a deep and piercing sense of its own Nothingness and unprofitableness that can be capable of the Divine bounty he fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away They are the hungry and thirsty Souls alwaies gasping after the living springs of Divine grace as the parched ground in the desert doth for the dew of Heaven ready to drink them in by a constant dependance upon God Souls that by a living watchfull and diligent Faith spreading forth themselves in all obsequious reverence and love of him wait upon him as the Eyes of an handmaid wait on the hand of her Mistress These are they that he delights to satiate with his goodness Those that being master'd by a strong sense of their own indigency their pinching and pressing povertie and his All-sufficient fulness trust in him as an Almighty Saviour and in the most ardent manner pursue after that Perfection which his grace is leading them to those that cannot satisfie themselves in a bare performance of some External acts of righteousness or an External observance of a Law without them but with the most greedy and fervent ambition pursue after such an acquaintance with his Divine Spirit as may breath an inward life through all the powers of their Souls and beget in them a vital form and soul of Divine goodness These are the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham the sons of the Free-woman and heirs of the promises to whom all are made Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus These are they which shall abide in the house for ever when the sons of the Bond-woman those that are only Arabian proselytes shall be cast out CHAP. VII An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse How the whole business and Undertaking of Christ is eminently available both to give full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to encourage us to Godliness or a God-like righteousness briefly represented in sundry Particulars FOR the further illustration of some things especially in the latter part of this Discourse it may not be amiss in some Particulars which might easily be enlarged to shew How the Undertaking of Christ that Great Object of Faith is greatly advantageous and available to the giving full relief and ease to our Minds and Hearts and also to the encouraging us to Godliness or a true God-like righteousness In the General therefore we may consider That full and evident assurance is given hereby to the world That God doth indeed seek the saving of that which is lost and men are no longer to make any doubt or scruple of it Now what can we imagine more available to carry on a Designe of Godliness and to rouze dul and languid Souls to an effectual minding of their own Salvation then to have this News sounding in their Ears by men that at the first promulgation thereof durst tell them roundly in the Name of God that God required them every where to repent for that his Kingdome of grace was now apparent and that he was not only willing but it was his gracious designe to save recover lost Sinners who had forsaken his Goodness Particularly That the whole business of Christ is very advantageous for this purpose and highly accommodate thereto may appear thus We are fully assured that God hath this forementioned designe upon lost men because here is one viz. Christ that partakes every way of Humane Nature whom the Divinity magnifies it self in and carries through this world in Humane infirmities and Sufferings to Eternal glory a clear manifestation to the World that God had not cast off Humane Nature but had a real mind to exalt and dignifie it again The way into the Holy of holies or to Eternal happiness is laid as open as may be by Christ in his Doctrine Life and Death in all which we may see with open face what Humane Nature may attain to and how it may by Humility Self-denial and divine Love a Christ-like life rise up above all visible heavens into a state of Immortal glory and bliss Here is a manifestation of Love given enough to thaw all the iciness of mens hearts which Self-love had quite frozen up For here is One who in Humane Nature most heartily every where denying himself is ready to doe any thing for the good of Mankind and at last gives up his life for the same pupose and that according to the good will and pleasure of that Eternal love which so loved the World that he gave this beloved and his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Whereas every Penitent Sinner carries a sense of Guilt upon his own Conscience is apt to shrink with cold chill fears of offended Majesty and to dread the thoughts of violated Justice He is assured that Christ hath laid down his life and thereby made propitiation atonement for sin That He hath laid down his life for the Redemption of him and so in Christ we have Redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins Thus may the Hearts of all Penitents troubled at first with sense of their own guilt be quieted and fully establisht in a living Faith and Hope in an Eternal goodness seeing how their Sins are remitted through the bloud of Jesus that came to die for them and save them and through his bloud they may have free access unto God Seeing Sin and Guilt are apt continually to beget a jealousie of God's Majesty and Greatness from whom the Sinner finds himself at a vast distance he is made acquainted with a Mediator through whom he may address himself to God without this jealousie or doubting for that this Mediator likewise is one of Humane Nature that is highly beloved and accepted of God he having so highly pleased God by performing his Will in all things Certainly it is very decorous and much for the Ease of a Penitent's mind as it makes also for the disparagement of Sin that our Addresses to God should be through a Mediator The Platonists wisely observ'd that between the Pure Divinity and Impure Sinners as
will be as scant and sparing as may be here they will be as strict with God as may be that he may have no more then his due as they think like that Unprofitable servant in the Gospel that because his Master was an austere man reaping where he had not sown and gathering where he had not scattered was content and willing he should have his own again but would not suffer him to have any more This Servile spirit in Religion is alwaies illiberal and needy in the Magnalia Legis the great and weightier matters of Religion and here weighs out Obedience by drams and scruples it never finds it self more shrivell'd and shrunk up then when it is to converse with God like those creatures that are generated of slime and mud the more the Summer-sun shines upon them and the nearer it comes to them the more is all their vital strength dried up and spent away their dreadfull thoughts of God like a cold Eastern wind blasts all their blossoming affections and nips them in the bud these exhaust their native vigour and make them weak and sluggish in all their motions toward God Their Religion is rather a Prison or a piece of Penance to them then any voluntary and free compliance of their Souls with the Divine will and yet because they bear the burden and heat of the day they think when the evening comes they ought to be more liberally rewarded such slavish spirits being ever apt inwardly to conceit that Heaven receives some emolument or other by their hard labours and so becomes indebted to them because they see no true gain and comfort accruing from them to their own Souls and so because they doe God's work and not their own they think they may reasonably expect a fair compensation as having been profitable to him And this I doubt was the first and vulgar foundation of Merit though now the world is ashamed to own it But alas such an ungodlike Religion as this can never be owned by God the Bond-woman and her son must be cast out The Spirit of true Religion is of a more free noble ingenuous and generous nature arising out of the warm beams of the Divine love which first hatch'd it and brought it forth and therefore is it afterwards perpetually bathing it self in that sweetest love that first begot it and is alwaies refresh'd and nourish'd by it This Love casteth out fear fear which hath torment in it and is therefore more apt to chase away Souls once wounded with it from God rather then to allure them to God Such fear of God alwaies carries in it a secret Antipathy against him as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch speaks one that is so troublesome that there is no quiet or peaceable living with him Whereas Love by a strong Sympathy draws the Souls of men when it hath once laid hold upon them by its powerfull insinuation into the nearest conjunction that may be with the Divinity it thaws all those frozen affections which a Slavish fear had congealed and lock'd up and makes the Soul most chearfull free and nobly resolved in all its motions after God It was well observed of old by Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are never so well as when we approach to God when in a way of Religion we make our addresses to God then are our Souls most chearfull True Religion and an Inward acquaintance with God discovers nothing in him but pure and sincere Goodness nothing that might breed the least distaste or disaffection or carry in it any semblance of displeasingness and therefore the Souls of good men are never pinching and sparing in their affections then the Torrent is most full and swells highest when it empties it self into this unbounded Ocean of the Divine Being This makes all the Commandements of God light and easie and far from being grievous There needs no Law to compel a Mind acted by the true spirit of divine love to serve God or to comply with his Will It is the choice of such a Soul to endeavour to conform it self to him and draw from him as much as may be an Imitation of that Goodness and Perfection which it finds in him Such a Christian does not therefore obey his Commands only because it is God's Will he should doe so but because he sees the Law of God to be truly perfect as David speaks his nature being reconciled to God finds it all holy just and good as S. Paul speaks and such a thing as his Soul loves sweeter then the honey or the honey-combe and he makes it his meat and drink to doe the Will of God as our Lord and Saviour did And so I pass to the Fourth and last Particular wherein Religion is sometimes mistaken CHAP. V. The Fourth and last Mistake about Religion When a mere Mechanical and Artificial Religion is taken for that which is a true Impression of Heaven upon the Souls of men and which moves like a new Nature How Religion is by some made a piece of Art and how there may be specious and plausible Imitations of the Internals of Religion as well as of the Externals The Method and Power of Fancy in contriving such Artificial imitations How apt men are in these to deceive both themselves and others The Difference between those that are govern'd in their Religion by Fancy and those that are actuated by the Divine Spirit and in whom Religion is a Living Form That True Religion is no Art but a new Nature Religion discovers it self best in a Serene and clear Temper of Mind in deep Humility Meekness Self-denial Universal love of God and all true Goodness THE Fourth and last Particular wherein men mis-judge themselves is When a mere Mechanical and Artificial Religion is taken for that which is a true Impression of Heaven upon the Souls of men and which moves like an Inward nature True Religion will not stoop to Rules of Art nor be confin'd within the narrow compass thereof No where it is we may cry out with the Greek Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath there kindled as it were his own Life which will move and act only according to the Laws of Heaven But there are some Mechanical Christians that can frame and fashion out Religion so cunningly in their own Souls by that Book-skill they have got of it that it may many times deceive themselves as if it were a true living thing We often hear that mere Pretenders to Religion may go as far in all the External acts of it as those that are best acquainted with it I doubt not also but many times there may be Artificial imitations drawn of that which only lives in the Souls of good Men by the powerful and wily Magick of exalted Fancies as we read of some Artificers that have made such Images of living creatures wherein they have not only drawn forth the outward shape but seem almost to have copied out the life
mangling of the Words or running out into any Critical curiosities about them I shall from these Words take occasion to set forth The Nobleness and Generous Spirit of True Religion which I suppose to be meant here by The way of life The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred above may signifie that which is divine and heavenly high and excellent as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. 2. S. Austin supposeth the things of Religion to be meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superna for this reason quòd merito excellentiae longè superant res terrenas And in this sense I shall consider it my purpose being from hence to discourse of the Excellent and Noble spirit of true Religion whether it be taken in abstracto as it is in it self or in concreto as it becomes an inward Form and Soul to the Minds and Spirits of Good men and this in opposition to that low and base-born spirit of Irreligion which is perpetually sinking from God till it couches to the very Centre of misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lowermost Hell In discoursing upon this Argument I shall observe this Method viz. I shall consider the Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion 1. In its Rise and Original 2. In its Nature and Essence 3. In its Properties and Operations 4. In its Progress 5. In its Term and End CHAP. I. 1. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Original and Fountain it comes from Heaven and moves towards Heaven again God the First Excellency and Primitive Perfection All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to and Participation of the First Perfection Religion the greatest Participation of God none capable of this Divine Communication but the Highest of created Beings and consequently Religion is the greatest Excellency A twofold Fountain in God whence Religion flowes viz. 1. His Nature 2. His Will Of Truth Natural and Revealed Of an Outward and Inward Revelation of God's Will WE begin with the First viz. True Religion is a Noble thing in its Rise and Original and in regard of its Descent True Religion derives its pedigree from Heaven is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes from Heaven and constantly moves toward Heaven again it 's a Beam from God as every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning as S. James speaks God is the First Truth and Primitive Goodness True Religion is a vigorous Efflux and Emanation of Both upon the Spirits of men and therefore is called a participation of the divine Nature Indeed God hath copyed out himself in all created Being having no other Pattern to frame any thing by but his own Essence so that all created Being is umbratilis similitudo entis increati and is by some stamp or other of God upon it at least remotely allied to him But True Religion is such a Communication of the Divinity as none but the Highest of created Beings are capable of On the other side Sin and Wickedness is of the basest and lowest Original as being nothing else but a perfect degeneration from God and those Eternal Rules of Goodness which are derived from him Religion is an Heaven-born thing the Seed of God in the Spirits of men whereby they are formed to a similitude likeness of himself A true Christian is every way of a most noble Extraction of an heavenly and divine pedigree being born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above as it is express'd Joh. 3. The line of all earthly Nobility if it were followed to the beginning would lead to Adam where all the lines of descent meet in One and the Root of all Extractions would be found planted in nothing else but Adamah red Earth But a Christian derives his line from Christ who is the Only-begotten Son of God the shining forth of his glory and the Character of his person as he is stiled Heb. 1. We may truly say of Christ and Christians as Zebah and Zalmunna said of Gideon's brethren As he is so are they according to their capacity each one resembling the children of a king Titles of Worldly honour in Heavens heraldry are but only Tituli nominales but Titles of Divine dignity signify some Real thing some Real and Divine Communications to the Spirits and Minds of men All Perfections and Excellencies in any kind are to be measured by their approach to that Primitive Perfection of all God himself and therefore Participation of the Divine nature cannot but entitle a Christian to the highest degree of dignity Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Jo. 3. 1. Thus much for a more general discovery of the Nobleness of Religion as to its Fountain and Original We may further and more particularly take notice of this in reference to that Twofold fountain in God from whence all true Religion flows and issues forth viz. 1. His Immutable Nature 2. His Will 1. The Immutable Nature of God From thence arise all those Eternal Rules of Truth and Goodness which are the Foundation of all Religion and which God at the first Creation folded up in the Soul of man These we may call the Truths of Natural inscription understanding hereby either those Fundamental principles of Truth which Reason by a naked intuition may behold in God or those necessary Corollaries and Deductions that may be drawn from thence I cannot think it so proper to say That God ought infinitely to be loved because he commands it as because he is indeed an Infinite and Unchangeable Goodness God hath stamp'd a Copy of his own Archetypal Loveliness upon the Soul that man by reflecting into himself might behold there the glory of God intra se videre Deum see within his Soul all those Ideas of Truth which concern the Nature and Essence of God by reason of its own resemblance of God and so beget within himself the most free and generous motions of Love to God Reason in man being Lumen de Lumine a Light flowing from the Fountain and Father of Lights and being as Tully phraseth it participata similitudo Rationis aternae as the Law of Nature the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law written in mans Heart is participatio Legis aternae in Rationali creatura it was to enable Man to work out of himself all those Notions of God which are the true Ground-work of Love and Obedience to God and conformity to him and in modling the inward man into the greatest conformity to the Nature of God was the Perfection and Efficacy of the Religion of Nature But since Mans fall from God the inward virtue and vigour of Reason is much abated the Soul having suffered a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the nearest intimacy and conjunction with God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus speaks Then indeed the Soul lives most nobly when it feels it self to live and move and have its Being in God which though the Law of Nature makes the Common condition of all created Being yet it is only True Religion that can give us a more feeling and comfortable sense of it God is not present to Wicked men when his Almighty Essence supports them and maintains them in Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he is present to him that can touch him hath an inward feeling knowledge of God and is intimately united to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to him that cannot thus touch him he is not present Religion is Life and Spirit which flowing out from God who is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath life in himself returns to him again as into its own Original carrying the Souls of Good men up with it The Spirit of Religion is alwaies ascending upwards and spreading it self through the whole Essence of the Soul loosens it from a Self-confinement and narrowness and so renders it more capacious of Divine Enjoyment God envies not his people any good but being infinitely bountifull is pleased to impart himself to them in this life so far as they are capable of his Communications they stay not for all their happiness till they come to heaven Religion alwaies carries its reward along with it and when it acts most vigorously upon the Mind and Spirit of man it then most of all fills it with an inward sense of Divine sweetness To conclude To walk with God is in Scripture made the Character of a Good man and it 's the highest perfection and privilege of Created Nature to converse with the Divinity Whereas on the contrary Wicked men converse with nothing but their Lusts and the Vanities of this fading life which here flatter them for a while with unhallowed delights and a mere Shadow of Contentment and when these are gone they find both Substance and Shadow too to be lost Eternally But true Goodness brings in a constant revenue of solid and substantial Satisfaction to the Spirit of a good man delighting alwaies to sit by those Eternal Springs that feed and maintain it the Spirit of a Good man as it is well express'd by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is alwaies drinking in Fountain-Goodness and fills it self more and more till it be filled with all the fulness of God CHAP. III. 3. The Nobleness of Religion in regard of its Properties c. of which this is one 1. Religion enlarges all the Faculties of the Soul and begets a true Ingenuity Liberty and Amplitude the most Free and Generous Spirit in the Minds of Good men The nearer any Being comes to God the more large free the further it slides from God the more streightned Sin is the sinking of mans Soul from God into sensual Selfishness An account when the most Generous freedom of the Soul is to be taken in its just proportions How Mechanical and Formal Christians make an Art of Religion set it such Bounds as may not exceed the scant Measure of their Principles and then fit their own Notions as so many Examples to it A Good man finds not his Religion without him but as a living Principle within him God's Immutable and Eternal Goodness the Unchangeable Rule of his Will Peevish Self-will'd and Imperious men shape out such Notions of God as are agreeable to this Pattern of themselves The Truly Religious have better apprehensions of God HAving discoursed the Nobleness of Religion in its Original and Nature we come now to consider the Excellency of Religion in its Properties its proper Effects and vital Operations In treating of this Third Particular we shall as formerly we have done without tying our selves precisely to any strict Rules of Art and Method confound the Notions of Religion in abstracto and in concreto together handling them promiscuously As Religion is a noble thing 1. in respect of its Original 2. in respect of its Nature so also 3. in respect of its Properties and Effects The First Propertie and Effect of True Religion whereby it expresseth its own Nobleness is this That it widens and enlarges all the Faculties of the Soul and begets a true Ingenuity Liberty and Amplitude the most free and Generous Spirit in the Minds of Good men Those in whom Religion rules are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a true Generous Spirit within them which shews the Nobleness of their Extraction The Jewes have a good Maxime to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None truly Noble but he that applies himself to Religion and a faithfull observance of the Divine Law Tully could see so much in his Natural Philosophy as made him say Scientia Naturae ampliat animum ad divina attollit But this is most true of Religion that in an higher sense it does work the Soul into a true divine amplitude There is a living Soul of Religion in Good men which spreading it self through all their Faculties spirits all the Wheels of motion and enables them to dilate and extend themselves more fully upon God and all Divine things without being pinched or streightened within themselves Whereas wicked men are of most narrow and confined Spirits they are so contracted by the pinching particularities of Earthly and created things so imprisoned in a dark dungeon of Sensuality and Selfishness so streightned through their Carnal designs and Ends that they cannot stretch themselves nor look beyond the Horizon of Time and Sense The nearer any Being comes to God who is that Infinite fullness that fills all in all the more vast and large and unbounded it is as the further it slides from him the more it is streightned confined as Plato hath long since concluded concerning the condition of Sensual men that they live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Shel-fish and can never move up and down but in their own prison which they ever carry about with them Were I to define Sin I would call it The sinking of a Mans Soul from God into a Sensual Selfishness All the Freedom that wicked men have is but like that of banished men to wander up and down in the wilderness of this world from one den and cave to another The more high and Noble any Being is so much the deeper radication have all its Innate vertues and Properties within it and are by so much the more Universal in their issues and actings upon other things and such an inward living principle of virtue and activity further heightned and united and informed with Light and Truth we may call Liberty Of this truly-noble and divine Liberty Religion is the Mother and Nurse leading the Soul to God and so impregnating that inward vital principle of activity and vigour that is embosom'd in it that it is able
without any inward disturbance and resistance from any controlling Lusts to exercise it self and act with the greatest complacency in the most full and ample manner upon that First Universal and Unbounded Essence which is God himself The most generous Freedom can never be took in its full and just dimensions and proportion but then when all the Powers of the Soul exercise and spend themselves in the most large and ample manner upon the Infinite and Essential Goodness as upon their own most proper Object If we should ask a Good man when he finds himself best at ease when he finds himself most free his answer would be When he is under the most powerfull constraints of divine Love There are a sort of Mechanical Christians in the world that not finding Religion acting like a living form within them satisfie themselves only to make an Art of it and rather inform and actuate it then are informed by it and setting it such bounds and limits as may not exceed the short and scant measures of their own home born Principles then they endeavour to fit the Notions of their own Minds as so many Examples to it and it being a Circle of their own making they can either ampliateor contract it accordingly as they can force their own Minds and Dispositions to agree and suit with it But true Religion indeed is no Art but an inward Nature that conteins all the laws and measures of its motion within it self A Good man finds not his Religion without him but as a living Principle within him and all his Faculties are still endeavouring to unite themselves more and more in the nearest intimacy with it as with their proper Perfection There is that amiableness in Religion that strong Sympathy between the Soul and it that it needs carry no Testimonials or Commendations along with it If it could be supposed that God should plant a Religion in the Soul that had no affinity or alliance with it it would grow there but as a strange slip But God when he gives his Laws to men does not by virtue of his Absolute dominion dictate any thing at randome and in such an arbitrarious way as some imagine but he measures all by his own Eternal Goodness Had God himself been any thing else then the First and Greatest Good of man then to have loved him with the full strength of all our Faculties should not have been the First and Greatest Commandment as our Saviour tells us it is Some are apt to look upon God as some Peevish and Self-will'd thing because themselves are such and seeing that their own Absolute and naked Wills are for the most part the Rules of all their actions and the impositions which they lay upon others they think that Heaven's Monarchy is such an arbitrary thing too as being govern'd by nothing else but by an Almighty Absolute Will But the Soul that is acquainted most intimately with the Divine Will would more certainly resolve us That God's Unchangeable Goodness which makes the Divinity an Uniform thing and to settle together upon its own Centre as I may speak with reverence is also the Unchangeable Rule of his Will neither can he any more swerve from it then he can swerve from himself Nor does he charge any Duty upon man without consulting first of all with his Goodness which being the Original and adequate Object of a Good man's Will and affections it must needs be that all the issues and effluxes of it be entertain'd with an answerable complacency chearfulness This is the hinge upon which all true Religion turns the proper Centre about which it moves which taking a fast sure hold of an innate and correspondent Principle in the Soul of man raiseth it up above the confines of Mortality and in the day of its mighty power makes it become a free-will-Offering unto God CHAP. IV. The Second Property discovering the Nobleness of Relion viz. That it restores man to a just power and dominion over himself enables him to overcome his Self-will and Passions Of Self-will and the many Evils that flow from it That Religion does nowhere discover its power and prowess so much as in subduing this dangerous and potent Enemy The Highest and Noblest Victories are those over our Self-will and Passions Of Self-denial and the having power over our Wills the Happiness and the Privileges of such a State How that Magnanimity and Puissance which Religion begets in Holy Souls differs from and excells that Gallantry and Puissance which the great Nimrods of this world boast of THE Second Property or Effect of Religion whereby it discovers its own Nobleness and it is somewhat a-kin to the former Particular and will help further to illustrate and enforce it is this That it restores a Good man to a just power and dominion over himself and his own Will enables him to overcome himself his own Self-will and Passions and to command himself all his Powers for God 'T is only Religion that restores that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Stoical Philosophy so impotently pretended to it is this only that enthrones man 's deposed Reason and establisheth within him a just Empire over all those blind Powers and Passions which so impetuously rend a man from the possession and enjoiment of himself Those turbulent and unruly uncertain and unconstant Motions of Passion and Self-will that dwell in degenerate Minds divide them perpetually from themselves and are alwaies molding several factions and tumultuous combinations within them against the dominion of Reason And the only way to unite man firmly to himself is by uniting him to God and establishing in him a firm amity and agreement with the First and Primitive Being There is nothing in the World so boisterous as a man 's own Self-will which is never guided by any fixt or steddy Rules but is perpetually hurried to and fro by a blind and furious impetus of Pride and Passions issuing from within it self This is the true source and Spring of all that Envy Malice Bitterness of Spirit Male-contentedness and Impatiency of all those black and dark Passions those inordinate desires and lusts that reign in the hearts and lives of wicked men A man 's own Self-will throws him out of all true enjoyment of his own Being therefore it was our Saviours counsell to his disciples In patience possess your Souls We may say of that Self-will which is lodg'd in the heart of a wicked man as the Jews speak of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figmentum malum so often mention'd in their Writings that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of death and darkness which is at continual enmity with Heaven and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the filthiness and poison of the Serpent This is the Seed of the Evil Spirit which is perpetually at enmity with the Seed of God and the Heaven-born Nature It 's design and scope is with a Giant-like pride to climb up into the Throne of
as unstable unconstant tumultuous and perplex'd a thing as the world is On the contrary the Spirit of true Religion steering and directing the Mind and Life to God makes it an Uniform Stable and quiet thing as God himself is it is only true Goodness in the Soul of man guiding it steddily and uniformly towards God directing it and all its actions to the one Last End and Chief Good that can give it a true consistency and composedness within it self All Self-seeking and Self-love do but imprison the Soul and confine it to its own home the Mind of a Good man is too Noble too Big for such a Particular life he hath learn'd to despise his own Being in comparison of that Uncreated Beauty and Goodness which is so infinitely transcendent to himself or any created thing he reckons upon his choice and best affections and designes as too choice and precious a treasure to be spent upon such a poor sorry thing as himself or upon any thing else but God himself This was the life of Christ and is in some degree the life of every one that partakes of the Spirit of Christ. Such Christians seek not their own glory but the glory of him that sent them into this world they know they were brought forth into this world not to set up or drive a trade for themselves but to serve the will pleasure of him that made them to finish that work he hath appointed them It were not worth the while to have been born or to live had it been only for such a penurious End as our selves are it is most God-like and best suits with the Spirit of Religion for a Christian to live wholy to God to live the life of God having his own life hid with Christ in God and thus in a sober sense he becomes Deified This indeed is such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deification as is not transacted merely upon the Stage of Fancy by Arrogance and Presumption but in the highest Powers of the Soul by a living and quickning Spirit of true Religion there uniting God and the Soul together in the Unity of Affections Will and End I should now pass from this to another Particular but because many are apt to misapprehend the Notion of God's glory and flatter themselves with their pretended and imaginary aiming at the Glory of God I think it may be of good use a little further and more distinctly to unfold the Designe that a Religious mind drives on in directing it self and all its actions to God We are therefore to consider that this doth not consist in some Transient thoughts of God and his Glory as the End we propound to our selves in any Undertakings a man does not direct all his actions to the Glory of God by forming a Conception in his Mind or stirring up a strong Imagination upon any Action That that must be for the Glory of God it is not the thinking of God's glory that is glorifying of him As all other parts of Religion may be apishly acted over by Fancy and Imagination so also may the Internal parts of Religion many times be acted over with much seeming grace by our Fancy and Passions these often love to be drawing the pictures of Religion and use their best arts to render them more beautifull and pleasing But though true Practical Religion derives its force and beauty through all the Lower Powers of a mans Soul yet it hath not its rise nor throne there as Religion consists not in a Form of Words which signifie nothing so neither doth it consist in a Set of Fancies or Internal apprehensions Our Saviour hath best taught what it is to live to God's glory or to glorifie God viz. to be fruitfull in all holiness and to live so as that our lives may shine with his grace spreading it self through our whole man We rather glorifie God by entertaining the Impressions of his Glory upon us then by communicating any kind of Glory to him Then does a Good man become the Tabernacle of God wherein the Divine Shechinah does rest and which the Divine glory fills when the frame of his Mind and Life is wholy according to that Idea and Pattern which he receives from the Mount We best glorifie him when we grow most like to him and we then act most for his glory when a true Spirit of Sanctity Justice Meekness c. runs through all our actions when we so live in the World as becomes those that converse with the great Mind and Wisdom of the whole World with that Almighty Spirit that made supports and governs all things with that Being from whence all good flows and in which there is no Spot Stain or Shadow of Evil and so being captivated and overcome by the sense of the Divine loveliness and goodness endeavour to be like him and conform our selves as much as may be to him When God seeks his own Glory he does not so much endeavour any thing without himself He did not bring this stately fabrick of the Universe into Being that he might for such a Monument of his mighty Power and Beneficence gain some Panegyricks or Applause from a little of that fading breath which he had made Neither was that gracious contrivance of restoring lapsed men to himself a Plot to get himself some Eternal Hallelujahs as if he had so ardently thirsted after the layes of glorified spirits or desired a Quire of Souls to sing forth his praises Neither was it to let the World see how Magnificent he was No it is his own Internal Glory that he most loves and the Communication thereof which he seeks as Plato sometimes speaks of the Divine love it arises not out of Indigency as created love does but out of Fulness and Redundancy it is an overflowing fountain and that love which descends upon created Being is a free Efflux from the Almighty Source of love and it is well pleasing to him that those Creatures which he hath made should partake of it Though God cannot seek his own Glory so as if he might acquire any addition to himself yet he may seek it so as to communicate it out of himself It was a good Maxime of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 w ch is better stated by * S. James God giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not And by that Glory of his which he loves to impart to his Creatures I understand those stamps and impressions of Wisdom Justice Patience Mercy Love Peace Joy and other Divine gifts which he bestows freely upon the Minds of men And thus God triumphs in his own Glory and takes pleasure in the Communication of it As God's seeking his own Glory in respect of us is most properly the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us so our seeking the Glory of God is most properly our endeavouring a Participation of his Goodness and an earnest uncessant pursuing after Divine perfection When God becomes so great in our eyes
own happiness This is the best temper and composedness of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus speaks when by a Conjunction with One Chief Good and Last End it is drawn up into an Unity and Consent with it self when all the Faculties of the Soul with their several issues and motions though never so many in themselves like so many lines meet together in one and the same Centre It is not one and the same Goodness that alwaies acts the Faculties of a Wicked man but as many several images and pictures of Goodness as a quick and working Fancy can represent to him which so divide his affections that he is no One thing within himself but tossed hither and thither by the most independent Principles Imaginations that may be But a Good man hath singled out the Supreme Goodness which by an Omnipotent sweetness draws all his affections after it and so makes them all with the greatest complacency conspire together in the pursuit and embraces of it Were there not some Infinite and Self-sufficient Goodness and that perfectly One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Simplicius doth phrase it Man would be a most miserably-distracted creature As the restless appetite within Man after some Infinite and Soveraign Good without the enjoyment of which it could never be satisfied does commend unto us the Notion of a Deity so the perpetnal distractions and divisions that would arise in the Soul upon a Plurality of Deities may seem no less to evince the Unity of that Deity Were not this Chief Good perfectly One were there any other equal to it man's Soul would hang in aequilibrio equally poised equally desiring the enjoyment of both but moving to neither like a piece of Iron between two Loadstones of equal virtue But when Religion enters into the Soul it charms all its restless rage and violent appetite by discovering to it the Universal Fountain-fulness of One Supreme Almighty Goodness and leading it out of it self into a conjunction therewith it lulls it into the most undisturbed rest and quietness in the lap of Divine enjoyment where it meets with full contentment and rests adequately satisfied in the fruition of the Infinite Uniform and Essential Goodness and Loveliness the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a noble Philosopher doth well express it The Peace which a Religious Soul is possessed of is such a Peace as passeth all understanding the Joy that it meets with in the ways of Holiness is unspeakable and full of Glory The Delights and Sweetnesses that accompany a Religious life are of a purer and more excellent Nature then the Pleasures of Worldly men The Spirit of a Good man is a more pure and refined thing then to delight it self in the thick mire of Earthly and Sensual pleasures which Carnal men rowle and tumble themselves in with so much greediness Non admittit ad volatum Accipitrem suum in terra pulverulenta as the Arabick Proverb hath it It speaks the degeneration of any Soul whatsoever that it should desire to incorporate it self with any of the gross dreggy sensual delights here below But a Soul purified Religion from all Earthly dreggs delights to mingle it self only with things that are most Divine and Spiritual There is nothing that can beget any pleasure or sweetness but in some harmonical Faculty which hath some kindred and acquaintance with it As it is in the Senses so in every other Faculty there is such a Natural kind of Science as whereby it can single out its own proper Object from every thing else and is better able to define it to it self then the exactest Artist in the world can and when once it hath found it out it presently feels it self so perfectly fitted and matched by it that it dissolves into secret joy and pleasure in the entertainment of it True Delight and Joy is begotten by the conjunction of some discerning Faculty with its proper Object The proper Object for a Mind and Spirit are Divine and Immaterial things with which it hath the greatest affinity and therefore triumphs most in its converse with them as it is well observed by Seneca Hoc habet argumentum divinitatis suae quòd illum divina delectant nec ut alienis interest sed ut suis and when it converseth most with these high and noble Objects it behaves it self most gracefully and lives most becoming it self and it lives also most deliciously nor can it any where else be better provided for or indeed fare so well A Good man disdains to be beholding to the Wit or Art or Industry of any Creature to find him out and bring him in a constant revenue and maintenance for his Joy and Pleasure the language of his Heart is that of the Psalmist Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Religion alwaies carries a sufficient Provision of Joy and Sweetness along with it to maintain it self withall All the ways of Wisdom are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Religion is no sullen Stoicisme or oppressing Melancholie it is no enthralling tyranny exercised over those noble and vivacious affections of Love and Delight as those men that were never acquainted with the life of it may imagine but it is full of a vigorous and masculine delight and joy such as advanceth and ennobles the Soul and does not weaken or dispirit the life and power of it as Sensual and Earthly joys doe when the Soul unacquainted with Religion is enforc'd to give entertainment to these gross earthly things for the want of enjoyment of some better Good The Spirit of a Good man may justly behave it self with a noble disdain to all Terrene pleasures because it knows where to mend its fare it is the same Almighty and Eternal Goodness which is the Happiness of God and of all Good men The truly-religious Soul affects nothing primarily and fundamentally but God himself his contentment even in the midst of his Worldly employments is in the Sun of the Divine favour that shines upon him this is as the Manna that lies upon the top of all outward blessings which his Spirit gathers up and feeds upon with delight Religion consists not in a toilesome drudgery about some Bodily exercises and External performances nor is it onely the spending of our selves in such attendances upon God and services to him as are onely accommodated to this life though every employment for God is both amiable and honourable But there is something of our Religion that interests us in a present possession of that joy which is unspeakable and glorious which leads us into the Porch of heaven and to the confines of Eternity It sometimes carries up the Soul into a mount of Transfiguration or to the top of Pisgah where it may take a prospect of the promised land and gives it a Map or Scheme of its future inheritance it gives it sometimes some anticipations of
Blessedness some foretasts of those joys those rivers of pleasure which run at God's right hand for evermore I might further add as a Mantissa to this present Argument the Tranquillity and Composedness of a Good man's spirit in reference to all External molestations Religion having made a through-pacification of the Soul within it self renders it impregnable to all outward assaults So that it is at rest and lives securely in the midst of all those boysterous Storms and Tempests that make such violent impressions upon the spirits of wicked men Here the Stoicks have stated the case aright That all Perturbations of the Mind arise not properly from an Outward but an Inward cause it is not any outward Evil but an inward imagination bred in the womb of the Soul it self that molests and grieves it The more that the Soul is restored to it self and lives at the height of it's own Being the more easily may it disdain and despise any design or combination against it by the most blustering Giants in the world A Christian that enjoys himself in God will not be beholding to the worlds fair and gentle usage for the composedness of his mind No he enjoys that Peace and Tranquillity within himself which no creature can bestow upon him or take from him But the Stoicks were not so happy in their notions about the way to true Rest and Composedness of Spirit It is not by their leave the Souls collecting and gathering up it self within the Circumference of it's own Essence nor is it a rigid restraining and keeping in its own issues and motions within the confines of its own natural endowments which is able to conferre upon it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Composedness of mind which they so much idolize as the supreme and onely bliss of man and render it free from all kind of perturbations For by what we find in Seneca and others it appears that the Stoicks seeking an Autarchy within themselves and being loth to be beholden to God for their Happiness but that each of them might be as God self-sufficient and happy in the enjoyment of himself endeavoured by their sour doctrine and a rigid discipline over their Souls their severities against Passions and all those restless motions in the Soul after some Higher Good to attain a complete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a full contentment within themselves But herein they mistof the true method of finding Rest to themselves it being the Union of the Soul with God that Uniform Simple and unbounded Good which is the sole Original of all true inward Peace Neither were it an Happiness worth the having for a Mind like an Hermite sequestred from all things else by a recession into it self to spend an Eternity in self-converse and the enjoyment of such a Diminutive superficial Nothing as it self is and must necessarily be to it self It is onely peculiar to God to be happy in himself alone and God who has been more liberal in his provisions for man hath created in man such a spring of restless motion that with the greatest impatiency forceth him out of himself and violently tosseth him to and fro till he come to fix himself upon some solid and Self-subsistent Goodness Could a man find himself withdrawn from all terrene and Material things and perfectly retired into himself were the whole World so quiet and calme about him as not to offer to make the least attempt upon the composedness and constancy of his Mind might he be so well entertain'd at his own home as to find no frowns no sour looks from his own Conscience might he have that security from Heaven that God would not disquiet his fancied Tranquillity by embittering his thoughts with any dreadful apprehensions yet he should find something within him that would not let him be at rest but would rend him from himself toss him from his own foundation consistency There is an insatiable appetite in the Soul of man like a greedy Lion hunting after his prey that would render him impatient of his own pinching penury could never satisfy it self with such a thin and spare diet as he finds at home There are Two principall faculties in the Soul which like the two daughters of the Horsleach are always crying Give Give these are those hungry Vultures which if they cannot find their prey abroad return and gnaw the Soul it self where the carkasse is there will the Eagles be gathered together By this we may see how unavailable to the attaining of true Rest and Peace that conceit of the Stoicks was who supposed the onely way and method hereto was this To confine the Soul thus Monastically to its own home We read in the Gospel of such a Question of our Saviour's What went you out into the wilderness to see we may invert it What do you return within to see A Soul confined within the private and narrow cell of its own particular Being Such a Soul deprives it self of all that Almighty and Essential Glory and Goodness which shines round about it which spreads it self through the whole universe I say it deprives it self of all this for the enjoying of such a poor petty and diminutive thing as it self is which yet it can never enjoy truly in such a retiredness We have seen the Peacefull and Happy state of the truly-religious But it is otherwise with wicked and irreligious men There is no peace to the wicked but they are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt as it is exprest by the Prophet Esay The mind of a wicked man is like the Sea when it roares and rages through the striving of severall contrary winds upon it Furious lusts and wild passions within as they warre against Heaven and the more noble and divine part of the Soul so they warr amongst themselves maintaining perpetuall contests contending which shall be the greatest Scelera dissident These indeed are the Cadmus-brood rising out of the Serpent's teeth ready arm'd one against another whence it is that the Soul of a wicked man becomes a very unhabitable and incommodious place to it self full of disquietness and trouble through the many contests and civil commotious maintained within it The minds of wicked men are like those disconsolate and desolate spirits which our Saviour speaks of Matth. 12. which being cast out of their habitation wander up and down through dry and desert places seeking rest but finding none The Soul that finds not some solid and self-sufficient Good to centre it self upon is a boisterous and restless thing and being without God it wanders up and down the world destitute afflicted tormented with vehement hunger and thirst after some satisfying Good and as any one shall bring it tidings Lo here or Lo there is Good it presently goes out towards it and with a swift and speedy flight hastens after it The sense of an inward indigency doth stimulate and enforce it to seek its
contentment without it self and so it wanders up and down from one creature to another and thus becomes distracted by a multiplicity of Objects And while it cannot find some One and Onely object upon which as being perfectly adequate to its capacities it may wholly bestow it self while it is tossed with restless and vehement motions of Desire and Love through a world of painted beauties false glozing Excellencies courting all but matching nowhere violently hurried every whither but finding nowhere objectum par amori while it converseth onely with these pinching Particularities here below and is not yet acquainted with the Universal Goodness it is certainly far from true Rest and Satisfaction from a fixt composed temper of spirit but being distracted by multiplicity of Objects and Ends there can never be any firm and stable peace or friendship at home amongst all its Powers and Faculties nor can there be a firm amity and friendship abroad betwixt wicked men themselves as Aristotle in his Ethicks does conclude because all Vice is so Multiform and inconsistent a thing and so there can be no true concatenation of Affections and Ends between them Whereas in all Good men Vertue and Goodness is one Form and Soul to them all that unites them together and there is the One Simple and Uniform Good that guides and governs them all They are not as a Ship tossed in the tumultuous Ocean of this world without any Compass at all to stear by but they direct their course by the certain guidance of the One Last End as the true Pole-starr of all their motion But while the Soul lies benighted in a thick Ignorance as it is with wicked men and beholds not some Stable and Eternal Good to move toward though it may by the strength of that Principle of Activeness within it self spend it self perpetually with swift and giddy motions yet it will be always contesting with secret disturbances and cannot act but with many reluctancies as not finding an object equall to the force and strength of its vast affections to act upon By what hath been said may appear the vast difference between the ways of Sin and of Holinesse Inward distractions and disturbances tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil But to every man that worketh good glory honour and peace inward composednesse and tranquillity of spirit pure and divine joys farr excelling all sensual pleasures in a word true Contentment of spirit and full satisfaction in God whom the pious Soul loves above all things and longs still after a nearer enjoyment of him I shall conclude this Particular with what Plotinus concludes his Book That the life of holy and divine men is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life not touch't with these vanishing delights of Time but a flight of the Soul alone to God alone CHAP. VII The Fifth Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God and to a comfortable confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation Fearfulness Consternation of Mind and frightfull passions are consequent upon Sin and Guilt These together with the most dismall deportments of Trembling and Amazement are agreeable to the nature of the Devil who delights to be serv'd in this manner by his worshippers Love Joy and Hope are most agreeable to the nature of God and most pleasing to him The Right apprehensions of God are such as are apt to beget Love to God Delight and Confidence in him A true Christian is more for a solid and well-grounded Peace then for high raptures and feelings of joy How a Christian should endeavour the Assurance of his Salvation That he should not importunately expect or desire some Extraordinary manifestations of God to him but rather look after the manifestation of the life of God within him the foundation or beginning of Heaven and Salvation in his own Soul That Self-resignation and the subduing of our own Wills are greatly available to obtain Assurance The vanity and absurdity of that Opinion viz. That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to God's will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the subject of Eternal wrath in Hell if it should so please God THe Fifth Property or Effect whereby True Religion discovers its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it advanceth the Soul to an holy boldness and humble familiarity with God as also to a well-grounded Hope and comfortable Confidence concerning the Love of God toward it and its own Salvation The truly religious Soul maintains an humble and sweet familiarity with God and with great alacrity of spirit without any Consternation and Servility of spirit is enabled to look upon the Glory and Majesty of the most High But Sin and Wickedness is pregnant with fearfulness and horrour That Trembling and Consternation of Mind which possesses wicked men is nothing else but a brat of darkness an Empusa begotten in corrupt and irreligious Hearts While men walk in darkness and are of the night as the Apostle speaks then it is onely that they are vext with those ugly and gastly Mormos that terrify and torment them But when once the Day breaks and true Religion opens her self upon the Soul like the Eye-lids of the Morning then all those shadows and frightfull Apparitions flee away As all Light and Love and Joy descend from above from the Father of lights so all Darkness and Fearfulness Despair are from below they arise from corrupt and earthly minds are like those gross Vapors arising from this Earthly globe that not being able to get up towards heaven spread themselves about the circumference of that Body where they were first begotten infesting it with darkness and generating into Thunder and Lightning Clouds and Tempests But the higher a Christian ascends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above this dark dungeon of the Body the more that Religion prevails within him the more then shall he find himself as it were in a clear heaven in a Region that is calm and serene and the more will those black and dark affections of Fear and Despair vanish away and those clear and bright affections of Love and Joy and Hope break forth in their strength and lustre The Devil who is the Prince of darkness and the great Tyrant delights to be served with gastly affections and the most dismal deportments of trembling and astonishment as having nothing at all of amiableness or excellency in him to commend himself to his worshippers Slavery and servility that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Longinus truly calls it is the badge and livery of the Devil's religion hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathens perform'd with much trembling and horror But God who is the supreme Goodness and Essentiall both Love and Loveliness takes most pleasure in those sweet and delightfull affections of the Soul viz. Love Joy and Hope which are most
correspondent to his own nature The ancient superstition of the Heathens was always very nice and curious in honouring every one of their Gods with Sacrifices and Rites most agreeable to their natures I am sure there is no Incense no offering we can present God with is so sweet so acceptable to him as our Love and Delight and Confidence in him and when he comes into the Souls of men he makes these his Throne his place of rest as finding the greatest agreeableness therein to his own Essence A Good man that finds himself made partaker of the Divine nature and transform'd into the image of God infinitely takes pleasure in God as being altogether Lovely according to that in Cant. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Totus ipse est desideria and his Meditation of God is sweet unto him Ps. 104. S. John that lay in the bosome of Christ who came from the bosome of the Father and perfectly understood his Eternal Essence hath given us the fullest description that he could make of him when he tells us that God is Love and he that dwells in God dwells in love and reposing himself in the bosome of an Almighty Goodness where he finds nothing but Love and Loveliness he now displays all the strength and beauty of those his choiest and most precious affections of Love and Joy and Confidence his Soul is now at ease and rests in peace neither is there any thing to make afraid He is got beyond all those powers of darknesse which give such continual alarms in this lower world and are always troubling the Earth He is got above all fears and despairs he is in a bright clear region above Clouds and Tempests infra se despicit nubes There is no frightful terribleness in the supreme Majesty That men apprehend God at any time in such a dismayed manner it must not at all be made an argument of his nature but of our sinfulness and weakness The Sun in the heavens always was and will be a Globe of Light and brightness howsoever a purblind Eye is rather dazled then enlightned by it There is an Inward sense in Mans Soul which were it once awaken'd and excited with an inward tast and relish of the Divinity could better define God to him then all the world else It is the sincere Christian that so tasts and sees how good and sweet the Lord is as none else does The God of hope fills him with all joy and peace in believing so that he abounds in hope as the Apostle speaks Rom. 15. He quietly reposes himself in God his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord he is more for a solid peace and setled calme of spirit then for high Raptures and feelings of Joy or Extraordinary Manifestations of God to him he does not passionately desire nor importunately expect such things he rather looks after the Manifestations of the Goodness and Power of God within him in subduing all in his Soul that is unlike and contrary to God and forming him into his image and likeness Though I think it worthy of a Christian to endeavour the Assurance of his own Salvation yet perhaps it might be the safest way to moderate his curiosity of prying into God's Book of life and to stay a while untill he sees himself within the confines of Salvation it self Should a man hear a Voice from Heaven or see a Vision from the Almighty to testify unto him the Love of God towards him yet methinks it were more desireable to find a Revelation of all from within arising up from the Bottome and Centre of a mans own Soul in the Reall and Internal impressions of a Godlike nature upon his own spirit and thus to find the Foundation and Beginning of Heaven and Happiness within himself it were more desirable to see the crucifying of our own Will the mortifying of the mere Animal life and to see a Divine life rising up in the room of it as a sure Pledge and Inchoation of Immortality and Happiness the very Essence of which consists in a perfect conformity and chearfull complyance of all the Powers of our Souls with the Will of God The best way of gaining a well-grounded assurance of the Divine love is this for a man to overcome himself and his own Will To him that overcomes shall be given that white stone and in it the new name written which no man knoweth but he that receives it He that beholds the Sun of righteousness arising upon the Horizon of his Soul with healing in its wings and chasing away all that misty darkness of his own Self-will and Passions such a one desires not now the Starr-light to know whether it be Day or not nor cares he to pry into Heaven's secrets and to search into the hidden rolles of Eternity there to see the whole plot of his Salvation for he views it transacted upon the inward stage of his own Soul and reflecting upon himself he may behold a Heaven opened from within and a Throne set up in his Soul and an Almighty Saviour sitting upon it and reigning within him he now finds the Kingdome of Heaven within him and sees that it is not a thing merely reserved for him without him being already made partaker of the sweetnesse and efficacy of it What the Jewes say of the Spirit of Prophesy may not unfitly be applyed to the Holy Ghost the true Comforter dwelling in the minds of good men as a sure Earnest of their Eternal inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit resides not but upon a man of Fortitude one that gives proof of this Fortitude in subduing his own Self-will and his Affections We read of Elisha that he was fain to call for a Musical instrument and one to play before him to allay the heat of his Passions before he could converse with the Prophetical Spirit The Hely Spirit is too pure and gentle a thing to dwell in a Mind muddied and disturb'd by those impure dreggs those thick fogs and mists that arise from our Self-will and Passions our prevailing over these is the best way to cherish the Holy Spirit by which we may be sealed unto the day of redemption To conclude this Particular It is a venturous and rugged guess and conceit which some men have That in a perfect resignation of our Wills to the Divine will a man should be content with his own Damnation and to be the Subject of Eternal Wrath in Hell if it should so please God Which is as impossible as it is for him that infinitely thirsts after a true Participation of the Divine Nature and most earnestly endeavours a most inward Union with God in Spirit by a denial of himself and his own will to swell up in Self-love Pride and Arrogancy against God the one whereof is the most substantial Heaven the other the most real Hell whereas indeed by conquering our selves we are translated from Death to Life and the kingdom of God and Heaven is
and suck a Divine Sweetness out of every flower There is a Twofold meaning in every Creature as the Jews speak of their Law a Literal and a Mystical and the one is but the ground of the other and as they say of divers pieces of their Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so a Good man sayes of every thing that his Senses offer to him it speaks to his lower part but it points out something above to his Mind and Spirit It is the drowsie and muddy spirit of Superstition which being lull'd asleep in the lap of worldly delights is fain to set some Idol at its elbow something that may jogg it and put it in mind of God Whereas true Religion never finds it self out of the Infinite Sphere of the Divinity and whereever it finds Beauty Harmony Goodness Love Ingenuity Wisdome Holiness Justice and the like it is ready to say Here and There is God wheresoever any such Perfections shine out an holy Mind climbs up by these Sun-beams and raises up it self to God And seeing God hath never thrown the World from himself but runs through all created Essence containing the Archetypal Ideas of all things in himself and from thence deriving and imparting several prints of Beauty and Excellency all the world over a Soul that is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-like a Mind that is enlightned from the same Fountain and hath its inward Senses affected with the sweet relishes of Divine Goodness cannot but every where behold it self in the midst of that Glorious Unbounded Being who is indivisibly every where A Good man finds every place he treads upon Holy ground to him the World is God's Temple he is ready to say with Jacob Gen. 28. How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the House of God To conclude It was a degenerous and unworthy Spirit in that Philosophy which first separated and made such distances between Metaphysical Truths the Truths of Nature whereas the First and most antient Wisdome amongst the Heathens was indeed a Philosophical Divinity or a Divine Philosophy which continued for divers ages but as men grew worse their queazy stomachs began to loath it which made the truly-wise Socrates complain of the Sophisters of that Age which began now to corrupt and debase it whereas heretofore the Spirit of Philosophy was more generous and divine and did more purifie and ennoble the Souls of men commending Intellectual things to them and taking them off from settling upon Sensible and Material things here below and still exciting them to endeavour after the nearest resemblance of God the Supreme Goodness and Loveliness and an intimate Conjunction with him which according to the strain of that Philosophy was the true Happiness of Immortal Souls CHAP. IX The Seventh and last Property or Effect discovering the Excellency of Religion viz. That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it For a man to serve Providence and the Will of God entirely to work with God and to bring himself and all his actions into a Compliance with God's Will his Ends and Designs is an argument of the truest Nobleness of Spirit it is the most excellent and divine life and it is most for mans advantage How the Consideration of Divine Providence is the way to inward quietness and establishment of Spirit How wicked men carry themselves unbecomingly through their impatience and fretfulness under the disposals of Providence The beauty and harmony of the various Methods of Providence THE Seventh and last Property or Effect wherein True Religion expresseth its own Nobleness and Excellency is this That it raiseth the Minds of Good men to a due observance of and attendance upon Divine Providence and enables them to serve the Will of God and to acquiesce in it Wheresoever God hath a Tongue to speak there they have Eares to hear and being attentive to God in the soft and still motions of Providence they are ready to obey his call and to say with Esay Behold here am I send me They endeavour to copy forth that Lesson which Christ hath set Christians seriously considering how that they came into this world by God's appointment not to doe their own Wills but the Will of him that sent them As this Consideration quiets the Spirit of a Good man who is no idle Spectator of Providence and keeps him in a calm and sober temper in the midst of all Storms and Tempests so it makes him most freely to engage himself in the service of Providence without any inward reluctancy or disturbance He cannot be content that Providence should serve it self of him as it doth even of those things that understand it least but it is his holy ambition to serve it 'T is nothing else but Hellish pride and Self-love that makes men serve themselves and so set up themselves as Idols against God But it is indeed an argument of true Nobleness of Spirit for a man to view himself not in the narrow Point of his own Being but in the unbounded Essence of the First Cause so as to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to live only as an Instrument in the hands of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Optarem id me esse Deo quod est mihi manus mea was the expression of an holy Soul To a Good man to serve the Will of God it is in the truest and best sense to serve himself who knows himself to be nothing without or in opposition to God Quò minùs quid sibi arrogat homo eò evadit nobilior clarior divinior This is the most divine life that can be for a man to act in the world upon Eternal designes and to be so wholy devoted to the Will of God as to serve it most faithfully and entirely This indeed bestows a kind of Immortality upon these flitting and Transient acts of ours which in themselves are but the Off-spring of a moment A Pillar or Verse is a poor sorry Monument of any Exploit which yet may well enough become the highest of the worlds bravery But Good men while they work with God and endeavour to bring themselves and all their actions to a unity with God his Ends and Designs enroll themselves in Eternity This is the proper Character of holy Souls Their Wills are so fully resolv'd into the Divine Will that they in all things subscribe to it without any murmurings or debates they rest well satisfied with and take complacency in any passages of Divine dispensation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being ordered and disposed by a Mind and Wisedome above according to the highest rules of Goodness The best way for a man rightly to enjoy himself is to maintain an universal ready and chearfull complyance with the Divine and Uncreated Will in all things as knowing that nothing can issue and
consist in Bodily pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when the molestation is gone and the just constitution of Nature recovered Pleasure ceaseth But the highest Pleasure of Minds and Spirits does not onely consist in the relieving of them from any antecedent pains or grief or in a relaxation from some former molesting Passion neither is their Happiness a mere Stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Happiness of the Deity is not a mere Negative thing rendring it free from all disturbance or molestation so that it may eternally rest quiet within it self it does not so much consist in Quiete as in Actu vigore A Mind and Spirit is too full of activity and energy is too quick and potent a thing to enjoy a full and complete Happiness in a mere Cessation this were to make Happiness an heavy Spiritless thing The Philosopher hath well observ'd that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is infinite power and strength in Divine joy pleasure and happiness commensurate to that Almighty Being and Goodness which is the Eternal source of it As Created Beings that are capable of conversing with God stand nearer to God or further off from him and as they partake more or less of his likeness so they partake more or less of that Happiness which flows forth from him and God communicates himself in different degrees to them There may be as many degrees of Sanctity and Perfection as there are of States and Conditions of Creatures and that is properly Sanctity which guides and orders all the Faculties and Actions of any Creature in a way suitable and correspondent to that rank and state which God hath placed it in and while it doth so it admits no sin or defilement to it self though yet it may be elevated and advanced higher and accordingly true Positive Sanctity comes to be advanced higher and higher as any Creature comes more to partake of the life of God and to be brought into a nearer conjunction with God and so the Sanctity and Happiness of Innocency it self might have been perfected Thus we see how True Religion carries up the Souls of Good men above the black regions of Hell and Death This indeed is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls it is Religion it self or a reall participation of God and his Holiness which is their true restitution and advancement All that Happiness which Good men shall be made partakers of as it cannot be born up upon any other foundation then true Goodness and a Godlike nature within them so neither is it distinct from it Sin and Hell are so twined and twisted up together that if the power of Sin be once dissolv'd the bonds of Death and Hell will also fall asunder Sin and Hell are of the same kind of the same linage and descent as on the other side True Holiness or Religion and True Happiness are but two severall Notions of one thing rather then distinct in themselves Religion delivers us from Hell by instating us in a possession of True Life and Blisse Hell is rather a Nature then a Place and Heaven cannot be so truly defined by any thing without us as by something that is within us Thus have we done with those Particulars wherein we considered the Excellency and Nobleness of Religion which is here exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The way of life and elsewhere is stiled by Solomon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A tree of life true Religion being an inward Principle of life of a Divine life the best life that which is Life most properly so called accordingly in the Holy Scripture a life of Religion is stiled Life as a life of Sin and Wickedness is stiled Death In the ancient Academical Philosophy it was much disputed whether that Corporeal and Animal life which was always drawing down the Soul into Terrene and Material things was not more properly to be Stiled Death then Life What sense hereof the Pythagoreans had may appear by this practise of theirs They were wont to set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Empty coffins in the places of those that had forsaken their School and degenerated from their Philosophy and good Precepts as being Apostates from life it self and dead to Vertue and a good life which is the true life therefore fit only to be reckoned among the dead For a Conclusion of this Discourse The Use which we shall make of all shall be this To awaken and exhort every one to a serious minding of Religion as Solomon doth earnestly exhort every one to seek after true Wisedome which is the same with Religion and Holiness as Sin is with Folly Prov. 4. 5. Get Wisedome get understanding and v. 7. Get Wisedome and with all thy getting get understanding Wisedome is the principal thing This is the summe of all the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty business and concernment of man Let us not trifle away our time and opportunities which God hath given us wherein we may lay hold upon Life and Immortality in doing nothing or else pursuing Hell and Death Let us awake out of our vain dreams Wisedome calls upon us and offers us the hidden treasures of Life and Blessedness Let us not perpetually deliver over our selves to laziness and slumbering Say not There is a lion in the way say not Though Religion be good yet it is unattainable No but let us intend all our Powers in a serious resolv'd pursuance of it and depend upon the assistance of Heaven which never fails those that soberly seek for it It is indeed the Levity of mens spirits their heedlesseness and regardlesseness of their own lives that betrays them to Sin and Death It is the general practice of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extempore vivere as the Satyrist speaks they ordinarily ponderate and deliberate upon every thing more then how it becomes them to live they so live as if their Bodies had swallowed up their Souls their lives are but a kind of Lottery the Principles by which they are guided are nothing else but a confused multitude of Fancies rudely jumbled together Such is the life of most men it is but a meer Casual thing acted over at peradventure without any fair and calm debates held either with Religion or with Reason which in it self as it is not distorted and depraved by corrupt men is a true Friend to Religion and directs men to God and to things good and just pure lovely and praise-worthy and the directions of this Inward guide we are not to neglect Unreasonableness or the smothering and extinguishing the Candle of the Lord within us is no piece of Religion nor advantageous to it That certainly will not raise men up to God which sinks them below men There had never been such an Apostasy from Religion nor had such a Mystery of iniquity full of deceiveableness and imposture been revealed and wrought so powerfully in the Souls of
correspondence and converse with the Devil The Fears and Horrors which infest both the Apostate Spirits and Wicked men The weakness of the Devil's kingdom Christ's success against it IT Hath been an antient Tradition received by the Gentile Philosophers That there are Two main Principles that spend and spread their influence through the whole Universe The one they call'd The Principle of Good the other they call'd The Principle of Evil and that these Two maintain a continual contest and enmity the one with the other The Principle of Goodness which is nothing else but God himself who derived himself in clear and lovely stamps and impressions of Beauty and Goodness through the whole Creation endeavours still to assimilate and unite it to himself And on the other side The Principle of Evil the Prince of darkness having once stained the Original beauty and glory of the Divine workmanship is continually striving to mold and shape it more and more into his own likeness And as there is such a perpetual and active Enmity between God and the Evil Spirit so whatsoever is from God is perpetually opposing and warring against that which arises from the Devil The Divine Goodness hath put enmity between whatsoever is born of him or flowes forth from it self and the Seed of the Serpent As at the beginning he divided between the Night and the Day between Light and Darkness so that they can never intermingle or comply one with another or be reconciled one to the other so neither can those Beams of Divine light and love which descend from God upon the Souls of men be ever reconciled to those foul and filthy Mists of Sin and Darkness which ascend out of the bottomless pit of Hell and Death That Spirit is not from God who is the Father of lights and in whom there is no darkness as the Apostle speaks which endeavours to compound with Hell and to accommodate between God and the Devil God himself hath set the bounds to darkness and the shadow of death Divine Truth and Goodness cannot contract themselves with any thing that is from Hell or espouse themselves to any Brat of darkness as it was set forth in the Emblem under the Old Law where none of the Holy seed might marry with the people of any strange God Though that Rule Touch not tast not handle not be abolished in the Symbolical rites yet it hath an immutable Mystery in it not subject to the laws or changes of Time He that will entertain any correspondence with the Devil or receive upon his Soul his Image or the number of his name must first devest and strip himself of all that which hath any alliance to God or true Goodness within him He must transform his Mind into the true likeness and similitude of those foul Fiends of darkness and abandon all relation to the Highest and Supremest Good And yet though some men endeavour to doe this and to smother all those Impressions of Light and Reason which God hath folded up in every mans Being and destroy all that which is from God within them that so they may reconcile themselves to Sin and Hell yet can they never make any just peace with them There is no peace to the wicked but they are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Those Evil spirits are alwaies turbulent and restless and though they maintain continually a War with God and his kingdom yet are they alwaies making disquietings and disturbances in their own kingdom and the more they contest with God and are deprived of him the more full are they of horror and tumultuous commotions within Nothing can stand firm and sure nothing can have any true and quiet establishment that hath not the Everlasting arms of true Goodness under it to support it And as those that deliver over themselves most to the Devil's pleasure and devote themselves to his service cannot doe it without a secret inward Antipathy against him or dreadful thoughts of him so neither can those impure spirits stand before the Divine glory but being filled with trembling and horror continually endeavour to hide themselves from it and flee away before it as the Darkness flies away before the Light And according as God hath in any Places in any Ages of the world made any manifestations of himself to men so have those Evil spirits been vanquished and forced to quit their former Territories as is especially very observable in the ceasing of all the Graecian Oracles soon after the Gospel was promulged in those parts when those desolate spirits with horrid and dismal groans resigned up their habitations as Plutarch hath recorded of them Our Saviour hath found by good experience how weak a thing the Devil's kingdome is when he spoiled all the Principalities and Powers of darkness and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in or by it that is his Crosse as the Apostle speaks and if we will resolutely follow the Captain of our salvation and fight under his banner as good souldiers of Jesus Christ we have full security given us for the same successe Resist the Devil and he will flee from you CHAP. II. The First observable That the Devil is continually busie with us The Devil consider'd under a double notion 1. As an Apostate Spirit which fell from God The great danger of the Devil's activity not onely when he presents himself in some corporeal shape but when he is unseen and appears not The weakness and folly of those who are afraid of him onely when he appears embodyed That the Good Spirit of God is active for the Good of Souls How regardless men are of the gentle motions of the Divine Spirit and how unwatchfull and secure under the Suggestions of the Evil Spirit How we may discover the Devil in his Stratagems and under his several disguises and appearances IN these words Resist the Devil and he will flee from you we shall take notice First of what is evidently implied viz. That the Devil is continually busy with us This may be considered under a double notion 1. By the Devil we are to understand that Apostate Spirit which fell from God and is always designing to hale down others from God also The old Dragon mentioned in the Revelation with his tail drew down the third part of the Stars of heaven and cast them to the Earth As true Goodness is not content to be happy alone so neither can Sin and Wickedness be content to be miserable alone The Evil Spirit told God himself what his imployment was viz. To goe to and fro in the earth and to walk up and down in it he is always walking up and down through dry places where no Divine influences fall to water it as our Saviour speaks seeking rest though always restlesse The Philosophy of the Antients hath observed That every man that comes into this world hath a good and an evil Genius attending upon him
It were perhaps a vain curiosity to inquire whether the number of Evil spirits exceed the number of Men but this is too too certain that we never want the secret and latent attendance of them The Devil is not onely a word or a name made to affright and scare timorous men with neither are we then onely in danger of him when he presents himself to us in some Corporeal form it is nothing else but a superstitious weakness to be afraid of him onely then when he appears embodyed and to neglect that unseen and insensible influence which his continual converse with us as an unbodyed spirit may have upon us Those Evil spirits are not yet cast out of the world into outer darkness though it be prepared for them the bottomless pit hath not yet shut its mouth upon them They fell from God not so much by a Local descent as by a Mental apostasy and dissimilitude to God and they are now in libera custodia having all this habitable world for their Rendezvous and are stiled by the Apostle Spiritual wickednesses in high places Wheresoever there are any in a disposition to sin against God wheresoever there are any capable of a Temptation or Diabolical impression here and there are they A man needs not dig into the chambers of death or search among the shadows of darknesse to find them he needs not goe down into hell to seek them or use any Magical charms to raise them up from thence No those wicked and impure spirits are always wandring up and down amongst us seeking whom they may devour As there is a Good Spirit conversant in the world inviting and alluring men to Vertue and Goodness so there is an Evil spirit perpetually tempting and inticeing men to Sin and Vice Uncloathed and unbodyed natures may converse with us by secret illapses while we are not aware of them I doubt not but there are many more Divine impressions made upon the Minds of men both Good and Bad from the Good Spirit of God then are ordinarily observed there are many soft and silent impulses gentle motions like our Saviour's putting in his hand by the hole of the door as it is in the Canticles solliciting and exciting men to Religion and Holiness which they many times regard not and take little notice of There are such secret messages often brought from Heaven to the Souls of men by an unknown and unseen hand as the Psalmist speaks Once yea twice have I heard it that power belongeth unto God And as there are such divine irradiations sliding into the Souls of men from God so there are no question many frequent suggestions to the Fancies and Imaginations of men arising from the Evil Spirit and a watchfull observer of his own heart and life shall often hear the voice of Wisdome the voice of Folly speaking to him he that hath his eyes opened may see both the visions of God falling upon him and discern the false and foolish fires of Satan that would draw away his mind from God This is our unhappiness that the Devil is so near us and we see him not he is conversant with us and yet we are not aware of him Those are the most desperate designs likeliest to take effect that are carried on by an unseen and unappearing enemy and if we will provide our selves against the Devil who never misseth any opportunity that lies in his way to tempt us nor is ever failing in any plot we must then have our Senses exercised to discern both good and evil we must get our Minds awakened with clear and evident Principles of Light we must get our Judgments and Consciences well informed with sober and practical Truth such as tends to make us most like to God and to reconcile our natures more perfectly to Divine goodness Then shall we know and discover that Apostate Spirit in all his Stratagems whereby he seeks to bereave us of our happiness we shall know him as well when he cloaths himself like an Angel of light as when he appears in his own nakedness and deformity It is observed by some That God never suffered the Devil to assume any humane shape but with some Character whereby his Body might be distinguished from the true Body of a man and surely the Devil cannot so exactly counterfeit an Angel of light but that by a discerning mind he may be distinguished from him as they say a Beggar can never act a Prince so cunningly but that his behaviour sometime sliding into the course way and principles of his Education will betray the meannesse of his pedigree to one of a true noble extraction A bare Imitation will always fall short of the Copy from whence it is taken and though Sin and Errour may take up the mantle of Truth and cloath themselves with it yet he that is inwardly acquainted with Truth and an ingenuous lover and pursuer of it will be able to find out the Imposture he will be able to see through the vail into the naked deformity of them CHAP. III. 2. Of the activity of the Devil consider'd as a Spirit of Apostasy and as a Degenerate nature in men That the Devil is not onely the name of one Particular thing but a Nature The Difference between the Devil and Wicked men is rather the Difference of a Name then of Natures The Kingdome and Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is chiefly within in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds Men are apt to quarrell with the Devil in the name and notion and defy him with their Tongues while they entertain him in their Hearts and comply with all that which the Devil is The vanity of their pretended Love to God and Hatred of the Devil That there is nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him and to love him for his own Beauty and Excellency is the best way of loving him That there is nothing worse then Sin it self for which we should hate it and to hate it for its own deformity is the truest way of hating it How Hell and Misery arises from within men Why Wicked men are so insensible of their Misery in this life 2. WHen we say The Devil is continually busy with us I mean not onely some Apostate spirit as one particular Being but that spirit of Apostasy which is lodged in all mens natures and this may seem particularly to be aimed at in this place if we observe the context as the Scripture speaks of Christ not onely as a Particular person but as a Divine Principle in holy Souls Indeed the Devil is not onely the name of one particular thing but a nature He is not so much one particular Being designed to torment Wicked men in the world to come as a hellish and diabolical nature seated in the minds of men He is not onely one Apostate Spirit fallen down from heaven out of the lap of Blessedness but also a Spirit of Apostasy a
degenerate and depraved nature Could the Devil change his foul and impure nature he would neither be a Devil nor miserable and so long as any man carries about him a sinfull and corrupt nature he can neither be in perfect favour with God nor blessed Wickedness is the Form and Entelech of all the wicked spirits it is the difference of a name rather then any proper difference of natures that is between the Devil and Wicked men Wheresoever we see Malice Revenge Pride Envy Hatred Self-will and Self-love we may say Here and There is that Evil spirit This indeed is that Venenum Serpentis the poyson and sting too of that Diabolical nature As the Kingdome of Heaven is not so much without men as within as our Saviour tells us so the Tyranny of the Devil and Hell is not so much in some External things as in the Qualities and Dispositions of mens Minds And as the enjoying of God and conversing with him consists not so much in a change of place as in the participation of the Divine nature and in our assimilation unto God so our conversing with the Devil is not so much by a mutual local presence as by an imitation of a wicked and sinful nature derived upon mens own Souls Therefore the Jews were wont to stile that Original pravity that is lodged in mens spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel of death and fiend of darkness Those filthy Lusts and Corruptions which men foment and entertain in their Minds they are the noisome Vapours that ascend out of the bottomless pit they are the thick Mists and fogs of Hellish darkness arising in their Souls as a Preface and Introduction of Hell and Death within Where we find Uncleanness Intemperance Covetousness or any such impure or unhallowed behaviour we may say Here Satan's throne is This sinfull and corrupt nature being the true issue of Hell it self is continually dragging down mens Souls thither All Sin and Wickedness in man's Spirit hath the Central force and Energy of Hell in it and is perpetually pressing down towards it as towards its own place There needs no Fatal necessity or Astral impulses to tumble wicked men down forcibly into Hell No for Sin it self hastned by the mighty weight of its own nature carries them down thither with the most swift and headlong motion As they say of true Holiness and Christianity Christi sacrina pennas habet Christ's burden which is nothing else but true Godliness is a winged thing and bravely bears it self upwards upon its own wings soaring aloft towards God so we may say of all Impiety Diaboli sarcina pondus habet the Devilish nature is alwaies within the Central attractions of Hell and its own weight instigates and accelerates its motion thither He that allows himself in any sin or useth an unnatural dalliance with any vice does nothing else in reality then entertain an incubus Damon he prostitutes a wanton Soul and forceth it to commit lewdness with the Devil himself Sin is nothing better then a Brat of darkness and deformitie it hath no other extraction or pedigree then may be derived from those unclean spirits that are nestled in Hell All men in reality converse either with God or with the Devil and walk in the Confines either of Heaven or of Hell They have their fellowship either with the Father and the Son as S. John speaks or else with the Apostate and evil Angels I know these Expressions will seem to some very harsh and unwelcome But I would beseech them to consider what they will call that spirit of Malice and Envy that spirit of Pride Ambition Vain-glory Covetousness Injustice Uncleanness c. that commonly reigns so much and acts so violently in the Minds and Lives of men Let us speak the truth and call things by their own Names let us not flatter our selves or paint our filthy sores so much as there is of Sin in any man so much there is of the old man so much there is of the Diabolical nature Why do we defie the Devil so much with our Tongues while we entertain him in our Hearts But indeed men do but quarrel with him in the name and notion of him while yet their Hearts can readily comply with all that which the Devil is that Antipathy which is ordinarily expressed against him like those natural Antipathies which the Philosophers speak of being nothing else but Occult qualities or Natural instincts which as they arise not from any principle of Reason or Understanding so neither are they guided or governed by it As mens Love to God is ordinarily nothing else but the mere tendencie of their Natures to something that hath the notion or name of God put upon it without any clear or distinct apprehensions of him so their Hatred of the Devil is commonly nothing else but an inward displicency of nature against something entitled by the Devil's name Or else at best Corrupt minds do nothing else but fashion out a God and a Devil a Heaven and a Hell to themselves by the power of their own Fancies and so they are to them nothing else but their own Creatures sustained and supported by the force of their own Imaginations which first raised them And as they commonly make a God like to themselves such a one as they can best comply with and love so they make a Devil most unlike to themselves which may be any thing but what they themselves are that so they may most freely spend their Anger and Hatred upon him just as they say of some of the Ethiopians who use to paint the Devil white because they themselves are black This is a strange merry kind of Madness whereby men sportingly bereave themselves of the Supremest Good and insure themselves as much as may be to Hell and Misery They may thus cheat themselves for awhile but the Eternal foundation of the Divine Being is immutable and unchangeable God is but One and his Name One as the Prophet speaks howsoever the several Fancies of men may shape him out diversly and where we find Wisdome Justice Loveliness Goodness Love and Glory in their highest elevations and most unbounded dimensions That is He and where we find any true participations of these there is a true Communication of God and a defection from these is the Essence of Sin and the Foundation of Hell Now if this be rightly considered I hope there will an Argument strong enough appear from the Thing it self to enforce S. James his Exhortation Resist the Devil endeavour to mortifie and crucifie the Old man with all the corrupt lusts and affections of the Flesh. We never so truly hate Sin as when we hate it for its own Ugliness and deformity as we never love God so truly as when we love him for his own beauty and excellency If we calculate aright as we shall find nothing Better then God himself for which we should love him so neither shall we find any thing
so much a Thing without us as some men would seem to fansy it were we so dead and liveless as that we could never move but from an External impetus as our Religion could never indeed be called Ours so neither could we ever have the inward sense of that Bliss and Peace which goes along with it but must be like so many heavy loggs or dul pieces of Earth in Heaven and Happiness That is a very earthly and flat Spirit in Religion which sinks like the lees to the bottome or rather it is like that Terra damnata which the Chymists speak of having no vigour life or activity left in it is truly dead to God and is reprobate to any thing of Heaven We know the Pedigree of those Exhalations that arise no higher then a mere external force from the Sun's heat weigheth them up to be but base and earthly and therefore having no natural warmth or energy within themselves imparted to them they sink down again to the Earth from whence they came The Spirit which is from Heaven is alwaies out of an in-bred Nobleness which bears it up carried upwards again towards Heaven from whence it came powerfully resisting all things that would deprive it of God or hinder it from returning to its Original it is alwaies moving upwards in an even and steady way towards God from whence it came leaving the dark Regions of Hell and Death under it it resists Hell and Darkness by assimilating and conforming it self to God it resists Darkness in the armour of light it resists Death and destruction by the power of Divine love It must be something of Heaven in the Minds of men which must resist the Devil and Hell We do not alwaies resist the Devil then when we bid defiance to him or when we declame most zealously against him neither does our Resisting and Opposing of Sin and Wickedness consist in the violence of some Feminine passions which may sometimes be raised by the power of Fancy in the Minds of men against it But it consists rather in a mature and sedate resolution against it in our own Souls arising from a clear judgment of the foul and hatefull nature of Sin it self and him who is the Patron of it in a constant and serious endeavour of setling the government of our own Souls and establishing the principality of Grace and Peace within our selves There is a pompous and popular kind of tumult in the world which sometimes goes for Zeal to God and his kingdome against the Devil whenas mens own Pride and Passions disguise themselves under the notions of a Religious fervencie Some men think themselves the greatest Champions for God and his Cause when they can take the greatest liberty to quarrel with every thing abroad and without themselves which is not shaped according to the mould of their own Opinions their own Self-will Humour and Interest Whereas indeed this Spiritual warfare is not so much maintained against a forrein enemy as against those domestick rebellions that are within neither is it then carried on most successfully when men make the greatest noise and most of all raise the dust That impetuous violence and tempestuousness with which men are acted in pretensions of Religion arises ordinarily I doubt from unquiet and disturbed Minds within whereas it is indeed the inward conflicts and commotions sin and vice and not a holy zeal for God which discompose the Minds of men Sin where it is entertained will indeed breed disturbance and break the peace of a mans own spirit but a true resisting and opposing of it is the restoring of the Soul to its just Consistency Freedome and Serenity again As God's kingdome is set up so the Devil's kingdome may be pulled down without the noise of axes and hammers We may then attain to the greatest atchievements against the gates of Hell and Death when we most of all possesse our own Souls in patience collect our Minds into the most peacefull composed and united temper The motions of true Practical Religion are most like that of the Heavens which though most swift is yet most silent As Grace and true Religion is no lazy or sluggish thing but in perpetual motion so all the motions of it are soft and gentle While it acts most powerfully within it also acts most peacefully The kingdome of heaven comes not with observation that men may say Loe here or Loe there it is not with the devouring fire coming after it or a whirlwind going before it This fight and contest with Sin and Satan is not to be known by the ratling of the Chariots or the sound of an alarm it is indeed alone transacted upon the inner stage of mens souls and spirits and is rather a pacifying and quieting of all those riots and tumults raised there by Sin and Satan it is rather a reconciling the minds of men to Truth Justice and Holiness it is a captivating and subjecting all our Powers and Faculties to God and true Goodness through the effectual working of a divine Love and Humility and this Ressistance is always attended with Victory and Triumph warts upon this Fight which is the Third and last Observation we shall make upon these Words CHAP. V. The Third Observable viz. The Certainty of Success and victory to all those that resist the Devil This grounded upon 1. The Weakness of the Devil and Sin consider'd in themselves 2. God's powerfull assisting all faithful Christians in this warfare The Devil may allure and tempt but cannot prevail except men consent and yield to his suggestions The Devil's strength lies in mens treachery and falseness to their own Souls Sin is strong because men oppose it weakly The Errour of the Manichees about a Principium mali defended by men in their lives and practices Of God's readiness to assist Christians in their spiritual Consticts his Compassionate regards and the more special respects of his Providence towards them in such occasions The Conclusion discovering the Evil and Horridness of Magick Diabolical Contracts c. THe Certainty of Successe to all those that resist the Devil Resist the Devil and he will flee from you He cannot stand when opposed in the strength of God he will fall down as swift as lightning he cannot bear the glory of God shining in the Souls of men Here it is no more but Stand and Conquer Resist and Vanquish For First of all The Devil and Sin in themselves considered are but weak and impotent they cannot prevail over that Soul which yields not to them the Evil spirit then onely prevails over us when we our selves consent to his suggestions all his strength lies in our treachery and falseness to our own Souls Though those wicked spirits be perpetually so near us yet they cannot bow or bend our Wills there is a place of defence in the Souls of men into which they cannot enter they may stand at a distance allure and intice them but they cannot prevail over
did as soon vanish as arise and it used to arise upon no such occasions as I now speak of No whensoever he look'd upon the fierce and consuming Fires that were in mens Souls it made him sad not angry and it was his constant endeavour to inspire mens Souls with more benigne and kindly heats that they might warm but not scorch their Brethren And from this Spirit together with the rest of Christian Graces that were in him there did result a great Serenity Quiet and Tranquillity in his Soul which dwelt so much above that it was not shaken with any of those Tempests and Storms which use to unsettle more low and abject Minds He lived in a continued sweet enjoyment of God and so was not disquieted with scruples or doubts of his Salvation There was alwaies discernable in him a chearful sense of God's goodness which ceased not in the time of sickness But we most longed for to see the motions of his Soul when he drew near to the Centre of his rest He that had such a constant feeling of God within him we might conclude would have the most strong and powerful sense when he came nearer to a close conjunction with him But God was pleased to deny this to us and by a Lethargick distemper which seized on his Spirits he passed the six last daies of his life if I may call it a life in a kind of Sleep and without taking much notice of any thing he slept in the Lord. And now have I not described a Person of Worth and Eminency Have we not reason to be so sad as you see our Faces tell you that we are But alas half of that is not told you which your Eyes might have seen had you been acquainted with him I want thoughts and Words to make a lively pourtraiture of him my young Experience hath not yet seen to the height or the depth of these things which I have here given you a rude draught of and so my Conceipts and Expressions must needs fall far below that excellent degree of beauty wherein they dwelt in him Let it suffice therefore to say that I may keep to the word in the Text That he was truly a Father that he wanted Ages only to make him Reverend and that if he had lived many Generations ago left us the children of his Mind to posterity he might by this time have been numbred among the Fathers of the Church I have almost prevented my self already in the Two latter Particulars His singular Care and his great Usefulness both which must needs be concluded from the former His Care I say of others as a Tutor his Usefullness as a Fellow of this now mournful Society Let me speak a word or two of either 2. All his Pupils who are now truly Pupilli Fatherless children began to know in his sickness what it was to have and to want a loving Father a faithful Tutor and now they will know it more fully He was one that did so constantly mind their good that instilled such excellent pious Notions into their Minds gave such light in everything a man could desire to know that I could have been content though in this gown to have been his Pupil His Life taught them continual lessons of Justice Temperance Prudence Fortitude and Masculine vertue and above all he taught them true Dependance upon God and reference of themselves and all their Studies unto him with true Faith in and Imitation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for which end he often expounded to them out of the Holy Scriptures And for Humane learning the many good Scholars that came from under his hand do witness how dextrous he was at the training up of Youth in all good Literature Porphyry tells us of Plotin that he was such a carefull person that sundry Noble men and women with divers others when they died committed both their sons and daughters to his Tuition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unto some Tutelar Angel or a sacred and divine Guardian Truly those that come hither are in a manner without Father and Mother but they could not be committed to a more loving Tutor a more holy and faithful Guardian that would bring them up in all true Learning and Piety If any think that he was too severe let me tell them that they are such as find fault with the Lion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he looks not like an Ape but with a stern royal and Kingly countenance He both look'd and spake like a man that had drunk into his Soul such solid high and generous Principles as few men are acquainted with which made him very zealous not only for Righteousness Integrity and Holiness but for a Decorum in all things He had a great regard for all those things which are mentioned by the Apostle Philip. 4. 8. for whatsoever things were true honest or rather comely and grave seemly and venerable as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie for all that was just pure lovely of good fame and report if there was any praise or any vertue he was most earnest and forward in its behalf 3. And now what his Usefulness was and the Benefit we received by him all that bear any share in the government of this Society will be made to know by the want of him There is not one but will cry out with Elisha O the Chariot of this place and the horsemen thereof which words seem to express what a necessary man Elias was and to be just like that of Horace to Maecenas when sick which we may use concerning him that is now dead Grande decus columénque rerum Our great glory the pillar upon whose shoulders the weight of business of late lay O praesidium dulce decus meum as he saith in another place O thou who wast both my safe-guard and my ornament who wast a Society by thy self a College in brief what a loss have we sustained by thy departure That must not be resolved by me nor by any one single person of us but we must all lay our heads together to tell our loss To which of us was not he dear who is there that was not ingaged to him who can think himself as wise as he was when we had him And this our high and dear Esteem of him when he was with us leads me to speak of that Honour and Reverence which we all express to his Name that Affection which is in our Hearts to his Memory the sense that is in us of our great and unspeakable loss in Answer to those three foregoing Considerations about Elisha But here I must be very brief and put all together There is none that knew his Worth but honour his very dust And for my part I honour him so much that I wish we might doe as the Virgins of Israel did for Jephtah's daughter come once a year hither and lament his death and so at once we might express all
throughly acquainted with him knew well That as there was in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as'twas said of Solomon a largeness and vastness of Heart and Understanding so there was also in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free ingenuous noble Spirit most abhorrent of what was sordid and unworthy and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lxx. translate that Hebrew is the genuine product of Religion in that Soul where it is suffer'd to rule and as S. James speaks of Patience to have her perfect work The Style in this Tract may seem more rais'd and sublime then in the other which might be perhaps from the Nature and quality of the subject matter apt to heighten expressions but yet in this as in the other Tracts it is free from the Vanity of Affectation which a Mind truly ennobled by Religion cannot stoop to as counting it a Pedantick business and a certain argument of a Poorness and Weakness of Spirit in the either Writer or Speaker But if in this Tract the Style seem more magnificent yet in the Tenth and Last Discourse viz. Of a Christian's Conflicts and Conquests it is most familiar The Matter of it is very Useful and Practical for as it more fully and clearly acquaints a Christian with the more dangerous and unseen Methods of Satan's activity concerning which the Notions and Conceptions of many men are discovered here to be very short and imperfect so it also acquaints him with such Principles as are available to beget in him the greatest Courage Spirit and Resolution against the day of battel chasing away all lazy faintheartedness and despair of Victory This for the Matter The Style is as I said most familiar This Discourse was deliver'd in publick at Huntingdon where one of Queen's College is every year on March 25. to preach a Sermon against Witchcraft Diabolical Contracts c. I shall onely adde this That when he preach'd in lesser Country-Auditories particularly at Achurch near Oundle in Northamptonshire the place of his Nativity as it was his care to preach upon arguments of most practical concernment so was it also his Desire and Endeavour to accommodate his Expressions to ordinary vulgar Capacities being studious to be understood and not to be ignorantly wondred at by amuzing the People either with high unnecessary Speculations or with hard Words and vain Ostentations of Scholastick Learning the low design of some that by such arts would gain a poor respect to themselves for such and no better is all that stupid respect which is not founded upon Knowledg and Judgment He was studious I say there to speak unto men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Edification and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was significant and easie to be understood as the Apostle doth phrase it and to express his Mind in a way suitable to the apprehensions of Popular Auditories And as for the Discourses now published they also were delivered being College-Exercises in a way not less suitable to that Auditory and therefore it may not be thought strange if sometimes they seem for Matter and Style more remote from vulgar capacities Yet even in these Discourses what is most Practical is more easily intelligible by every honest-hearted Christian. And indeed that the whole might be made more familiar and easie and more accommodate to the use of any such I thought it would be very expedient as to cast the Discourses into Chapters so before every Chapter to propose to the Readers view the full Scope Sense and Strength of the principal Matters contained therein I could willingly have spared such a labour the greater when busied about the Notions and Conceptions of another and not our own if I had not conceived it to be greatly helpfull and beneficial to some Readers besides another advantage to them hereby viz. That they may the more easily find out and select any such particular Matters in these Discourses as they shall think most fit or desireable for their perusal Thus have I given the Reader some account of what seem'd fit to be observ'd concerning these Ten Discourses which now present themselves to his free and candid Judgment And now if in the reading of these Tracts enrich'd with Arguments of great variety there should occur any Passage wherein either He or I may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it need not be a matter of wonder for what Book besides that Book of Books the Bible has not something in it that speaks the Author Man It would not have displeased our Author in his life-time to have been thought less then Infallible He was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was no fond Self-admirer nor was he desirous that others should have his person his opinion and judgment in admiration he was far from the humour of Magisterial dictating to others not ambitious to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi as were and are the old the modern Pharisees nor of the number of those who are inwardly transported and tickled when others applaud their judgment and receive their Dictates with the greatest veneration and respect but very peevish and sowre disturb'd and out of order when any shall express themselves dissatisfied and otherwise minded or goe about modestly to discover their mistakes No he was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of Truth and of Peace and Charity He loved an ingenuous and sober Freedom of Spirit the generous Berean-like temper and practice agreeable to the * Apostle's prudent and faithful advice of proving all things and holding fast that which is good But to return It s possible that some Passages in these Tracts which seem dubious may upon a patient considering of them if the Reader be unprejudic'd one of a clear Mind Heart gain his assent and what upon the first reading seems obscure and less grateful may upon another view and further thoughts clear up and be thought worthy of all acceptation It is not with the fair Representations and Pictures of the Mind as with other Pictures these of the Mind shew best the nearer they are viewed and the longer the Intellectual Eye dwells upon them There is only one thing more which I ought not to forget to mind the Reader of and it is shortly this That he would please to remember that the now-published Tracts are Posthumous works and then affording that charity candour and fair respect which is commonly allowed to such works of Worthy men I nothing doubt but he will judge them too good to have been buried in obscurity although its likely if the Author himself had revis'd them in his life-time with an intent to present them to publick view they would have received from his happy hand some further polishing and enlargements He could have easily obliged the world with other Discourses of as valuable importance if he had liv'd and been so minded But it pleas'd the only-wise God in whose hand our breath is to call for him home to the Spirits of just
into the Soul of man wasts and eats out the innate vigour of the Soul and casts it into such a deep Lethargy as that it is not able to recover it self But Religion like that Balsamum vitae being once conveighed into the Soul awakens and enlivens it and makes it renew its strength like an Eagle and mount strongly upwards towards Heaven and so uniting the Soul to God the Centre of life and strength it renders it undaunted and invincible Who can tell the inward life and vigour that the Soul may be fill'd with when once it is in conjunction with an Almighty Essence There is a latent and hidden virtue in the Soul of man which then begins to discover it self when the Divine Spirit spreads forth its influences upon it Every thing the more Spiritual it is and the higher and nobler it is in its Being the more active and vigorous it is as the more any thing falls and sinks into Matter the more dull and sluggish unwieldy it is The Platonists were wont to call all things that participated most of Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now nothing doth more purifie more sublimate and exalt the Soul then Religion when the Soul suffers God to sit within it as a refiner and purifier of Silver and when it abides the day of his coming for he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers sope Mal. 3. Thus the Soul being purified and spiritualliz'd and changed more and more into the glorious Image of God is able to doe all things out of weakness is made strong gives proof of its Divine vigour and activity and shews it self to be a Noble and Puissant Spirit such as God did at first create it CHAP. V. The Third Property or Effect discovering the Nobleness of Religion viz. That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End viz. The Glory of God and his own becoming like unto God Low and Particular Ends and Interests both debase and streighten a mans Spirit The Universal Highest and Last End both ennobles and enlarges it A man is such as the End is he aims at The great power the End hath to mold and fashion man into its likeness Religion obliges a man not to seek himself nor to drive a trade for himself but to seek the Glory of God to live wholy to him and guides him steddily and uniformly to the One Chief Good and Last End Men are prone to flatter themselves with a pretended aiming at the Glory of God A more full and distinct explication of what is meant by a mans directing all his actions to the Glory of God What it is truly and really to glorifie God God's seeking his Glory in respect of us is the flowing forth of his Goodness upon us Our seeking the Glory of God is our endeavouring to partake more of God and to resemble him as much as we can in true Holiness and every Divine Vertue That we are not nicely to distinguish between the Glory of God and our own Salvation That Salvation is nothing else for the main but a true Participation of the Divine Nature To love God above our selves is not to love him above the Salvation of our Souls but above our particular Beings and above our sinfull affections c. The Difference between Things that are Good relatively and those that are Good absolutely and Essentially That in our conformity to these God is most glorified and we are made most Happy THE Third Property or Effect whereby Religion discovers its own Excellency is this That it directs and enables a man to propound to himself the Best End and Scope of life viz. The Glory of God the Highest Being and his own assimilation or becoming like unto God That Christian in whom Religion rules powerfully is not so low in his ambitions as to pursue any of the things of this world as his Ultimate End his Soul is too big for earthly designes and interests but understanding himself to come from God he is continually returning to him again It is not worth the while for the Mind of Man to pursue any Perfection lower then its own or to aim at any End more ignoble then it self is There is nothing that more streightens and confines the free-born Soul then the particularity indigency and penury of that End which it pursues when it complies most of all with this lower world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is well observed by an excellent Philosopher the true Nobleness and Freedome of it is then most disputable and the Title it holds to true Liberty becomes most litigious It never more slides and degenerates from it self then when it becomes enthrall'd to some Particular interest as on the other side it never acts more freely or fully then when it extends it self upon the most Universal End Every thing is so much the more Noble quò longiores habet fines as was well observ'd by Tully As low Ends debase a mans spirit supplant rob it of its birth-right so the Highest and Last End raises and ennobles it and enlarges it into a more Universal and comprehensive Capacity of enjoying that one Unbounded Goodness which is God himself it makes it spread and dilate it self in the Infinite Sphere of the Divine Being and Blessedness it makes it live in the Fulness of Him that fills all in all Every thing is most properly such as the End is which is aim'd at the Mind of man is alwaies shaping it self into a conformity as much as may be to that which is his End and the nearer it draws to it in the atchievement thereof the greater likeness it bears to it There is a Plastick Virtue a Secret Energy issuing forth from that which the Mind propounds to itself as its End to mold and fashion it according to its own Model The Soul is alwaies stamp'd with the same Characters that are engraven upon the End it aims at and while it converses with it and sets it self before it it is turned as Wax to the Seal to use that phrase in Job Man's Soul conceives all its Thoughts and Imaginations before his End as Laban's Ewes did their young before the Rods in the watering troughs He that pursues any worldly interest or earthly thing as his End becomes himself also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earthly the more the Soul directs it self to God the more it becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-like deriving a print of that glory and beauty upon it self which it converseth with as it is excellently set forth by the Apostle But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory That Spirit of Ambition and Popularity that so violently transports the Minds of men into a pursuit of Vain-glory makes them as vain as that Popular air they live upon the Spirit of this world that draws forth a mans designes after worldly interests makes him